;    ~ 


PRINCETON,     N.     J. 


'i&fen&a  /w      *fu>    ch 


«, 


Division . 

Section  .. 

Shelf. Number. 


M-  &L. 


sec 


2 


THE 


Crowning  Sin  of  the  Age 


Cfje  perberston  of  jWatriage* 


BY 

BREVARD   D.  ^SINCLAIR, 

MEMBER    OF  THE    AMERICAN    ACADEMY    OF    POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL 

SCIENCE;    LATE    MEMBER    OF    THE    BAR    OF   THE    SUPREME 

COURTS   OF  OHIO,    NORTH    CAROLINA,  AND   OF   THE 

UNITED    STATES    OF    AMERICA. 


Lo!  children  are  an  heritage  of  the  Lord.  —  Psalm  cxxvii.  3 

Thus  saith  the  Lord,  write  ye  this  man  childless,  a  man  who  shall 
not  prosper  in  his  days.  —Jeremiah  xxii.  30. 

Oi)  Qovevaeis  tskvov  tv  $>9opa  ovSe  yevvr)Qkv  airoKTevels.  — TEACHING 
of  the  Twelve  Apostles,  Chap.  ii.  38. 


SCRIPTURAL  TRACT   REPOSITORY  : 


H.  L.  HASTINGS,  MARSHALL   BROTHERS, 

'  Cornhill,  Boston,  Mass.,       Keswick  House,  Paternoster  F 

U.  S.  A.  London. 

Printed  in  America.  All  Plights  Reserved. 


Copyright. 

Beevaed  D.  Sixclaie. 

-  1892. 


TO 

Kg  Wtt* 

THE    MOTHER    OF    MY    CHILDREN 

TO   WHOSE    SYMPATHY    INSPIRATION   AND    AFFECTION    I    AM    INDEBTED 

IN   THUS   PREACHING   FOR   GOD   AND    HUMANITY 


^hi$  Boob  i$  Inscribed. 


PEEFAOE. 


This  book  was  born,  not  made  !  No  one  was  more  surprised  than 
the  author  at  the  profound  impression  the  publication  of  the  follow- 
ing sermon  created  when  abstracts  of  it  appeared  in  the  daily 
papers  of  Boston  and  New  York.  Although  it  produced  a  sensa- 
tion, it  was  not  in  any  sense  intended  to  be  a  "  sensational  sermon.'* 
It  was  conceived  out  of  a  full  heart  bursting  with  indignation  at  a 
sin  so  prevalent  that  one  must  be  conveniently  blind  not  to  see  it, 
and  a  sin  of  such  unblushing  audacity,  that  it  is  becoming  aggres- 
sive, and  has  its  propagandists  in  the  church  as  well  as  in  all 
ranks  of  society,  who  would  inoculate  others  with  this  moral  can- 
cer and  satanic  gangrene. 

If  a  minister  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  in  a  New  England  city  can- 
not himself  rear  a  family  of  children  without  having  the  privacy 
of  his  correspondence  and  sanctities  of  his  home  invaded  by 
the  intrusion  of  meddlers  who  would  pervert  marriage  and  counsel 
crime,  it  is  high  time  that  the  cry  of  warning  and  alarm  be  raised. 
And  if  the  Christianity  of  the  nineteenth  century  cannot  endure  the 
rebuke  of  flagrant  crimes,  it  may  be  well  to  go  back  eighteen  hundred 
years  to  the  days  of  a  purer  faith  and  recall  the  words  quoted  on  our 
title-page,  from  that  recently  discovered  work  :  "The  Teaching  of 
The  Twelve  Apostles;"  (a.  d.  120-160,)— "Thou  shalt  not  slay  a 
child  by  abortion,  nor  what  is  begotten  shalt  thcu  destroy :" — and 
also  to  trace  the  indignant  protest  of  the  Church  of  Christ  against 
the  prevailing  infanticide  of  heathendom,  as  seen  in  the  writings  of 
Justin  Martyr,  Tertullian,  Lactantius,  Hyppolytus,  and  the  assem- 
blies of  the  Church ; — the  Council  of  Ancyra,  a.  d.  314  having  imposed 
ten  years'  penance  upon  women  who  "  destroy  that  which  they  have 
conceived,  or  who  are  employed  in  making  drugs  for  abortion." 

If  certain  over-fastidious  people  insist  that  the  sacred  exercises 
and  spiritual  meditations  of  the  gospel  ministry  entirely  disqualify 
the  preacher  of  righteousness  for  the  work  of  discussing  and  rebuking 
the  flagrant  crimes  and  iniquities  which  surround  him ;  perhaps  the 
ordinary  reader  may  admit  that  ten  years  previously  spent  in  the 
study  of  the  principles  of  Civil  and  Criminal  Law,  and  in  the  prac- 

(5) 


6  PREFACE. 

tice  of  the  Legal  profession  in  the  highest  courts  of  the  State  and 
Nation,  may  have  availed  to  supply  some  of  the  defects  in  a  merely 
theological  education,  and  may  furnish  one  preacher  a  sufficient 
excuse  for  paying  some  attention  to  the  diabolism  of  this  world,  as 
well  as  to  the  glories  of  the  world  to  come. 

Preaching  as  I  do  from  Sabbath  to  Sabbath  in  a  pulpit  standing 
directly  over  the  coffined  relics  of  so  bold  and  fearless  a  prophet 
of  God  as  George  Whitefield,  how  could  I  refuse  to  lift  my  voice 
against  the  crowning  crime  of  the  land  and  the  age  1  With  the 
evidence  of  the  damning  sin  before  me,  and  the  everlasting  Word  of 
God  behind  me,  forbearance  here  would  be  crime  and  cowardice, 
entailing  the  blood  of  souls  upon  my  skirts  ! 

One  circumstance  has  encouraged  me  to  be  courageous  and  to 
take  hope  that  God's  Word  will  not  return  unto  him  void.  Letters 
have  poured  in  upon  me  by  scores,  from  every  section  of  New  En- 
gland and  from  many  parts  of  the  United  States,  urging  me  to  lead 
on  in  this  fight  for  the  children  and  the  American  home ;  and  blessing 
God  that  he  has  led  me  to  cry  aloud  in  this  matter,  when  purity  is 
throttled  by  iniquity  masquerading  as  purity  itself ! 

Already  have  I  received  word  of  the  good  this  sermon  has  accom- 
plished in  awakening  the  conscience,  and  in  bringing  light  and 
peace  to  disquieted  homes  There  are  "  left  seven  thousand  in  Is- 
rael which  have  not  bowed  unto  Baal,"  and  I  pray  God  that  this 
sermon  may  increase  that  goodly  company,  until  the  crime  and  vice 
will  be  not  only  unmentionable  but  unknown  in  Christian  America. 

The  author  takes  this  occasion  to  express  his  obligation  to  his 
friend  and  publisher,  Mr.  H.  L.  Hastings,  Editor  of  The  Christian, 
for  the  matter  contained  in  the  closing  pages  of  this  book.  The 
article  on  "  Small  Families,"  emphasizes  and  illustrates  points  but 
briefly  referred  to  in  the  body  of  the  work.  "  Without  Natural 
Affection  "  exhibits  the  Christian  philosophy  underlying  this  whole 
question,  and  the  extracts  from  "The  Wonderful  Law,"  under  the 
caption  of  "Practical  Suggestions,"  make  this  crusade  against 
childlessness  constructive,  and  point  out  that  obedience  to  the 
Divine  precepts  will  certainly  meet  with  the  Divine  blessing. 

BREVARD  D,  SINCLAIR. 

Old  South  Parsonage, 
Fir.^t  Presbyterian   Church, 
NewburyDort,  Mass., 
May,"  1892. 


CONTENTS. 


I.  SERMON. 
The  Crowning  Sin  of  the  Age,  pp.  9-25. 

II.  THE  REVIEWERS  REVIEWED. 

Euphemism,  29.  Encomiastic,  30.  Economics,  31.  Sartor  Resar- 
tus,  32.  Marriage  and  Divorce,  34.  A  Congressman's  View,  35. 
"That  old  Serpent,  the  Devil,"  39.  "Hold  the  Fort,"  from 
Clergymen,  42.  Testimony  of  Physicians,  44.  Heredity,  46.  Vir- 
tue its  own  Reward,  48.  Printed  Poison,  51.  The  Sermon  a 
Blessing,  52.  A  Suggestion,  54.   Guilty  Husbands,  36.  Hands  up,  36. 

III.     THE  DECAY     OE    NEW    ENGLAND. 

The  Decay  of  New  England,  55.  Births  and  Deaths,  56. 
Comparative  Conjugal  Condition,  59.  Conjugal  Condition  of  the 
Population,  61.  U.  S.  Census  Bulletin  1892,  62.  White  Popula- 
tion of  New  England,  according  to  Parentage,  63.  Married 
Women  and  Mothers,  66.  Percentages  of  Children  Living,  67. 
Size  of  Families,  68.     Marriages  from  1880  to  1890,  69. 

IV.     THE  VOICE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

Historical  Resume,  71.  Deliverance  Against  Infanticide,  73. 
The  Murder  of  the  Innocents,  74.     Pastoral  Letter,  75. 

V.     SMALL  FAMILIES. 

Small  Families,  77.  Our  Neighbor's  Pity,  81.  Without  Natural 
Affection,  82.     Practical  Suggestions,  88. 

VI.     COMMENDATORY  LETTERS. 

Cardinal  Gibbons,  92.  Dr.  A.  J.  Gordon,  92.  Rev.  John  H. 
Vincent,  92.  Dr.  Joseph  Cook,  92.  Dr.  T.  L.  Cuyler,  93,  Dr. 
Charles  F.  Deems,  93.  Dr.  James  McCosh,  93.  Miss  Frances 
E.    Willard,  94.     Yery  Rev.  Prof.  Dissez,  94. 

en 


TEXT. 

H  ^hen  when  £>ust  hath  conceived,  it  bringeth  foi^th  $in : 
and    $in,    when   it    is    finished,    tymgeth    forLth    Beath.'' 

James  i.  15. 


THE   CROWNING  SIN 
OF  THE    ^.aE. 

THE    PERVERSION     OF    MARRIAGE. 


If  there  were  any  possible  way  of  arousing  the  con- 
sciences of  men  and  women  on  vital  subjects  concerning 
the  will  of  Gods  other  than  the  fearless  preaching  of  the 
truth,  I  would  gladly  welcome  it. 

It  is  not  a  pleasant  task  to  tear  aside  the  masks  which 
men  wear,  and  expose  the  rotten  leprosy  of  sin  in  all  of 
its  pestiferous  hideousness. 

It  was  no  sinecure,  that  office  of  the  ancient  prophets, 
to  come  into  Israel  from  their  silent  and  holy  communion 
with  God,  and  in  the  elegant  court  of  Ahab  or  of  David, 
or  amid  the  Pharisaic  righteousness  of  Judah  and  Israel, 
to  denounce  the  chosen  people  for  their  sins. 

However  men  may  differ  concerning  the  ease  or  diffi- 
culties of  the  prophetic  life,  surely  no  one  would  contend 
that  it  was  an  agreeable  office  for  Nathan  to  say  unto 
David:  "Thou  art  the  man!"  It  is  certainly  not  one 
whit  more  pleasant  for  the  modern  prophet  to  say : 
"  Thou  art  the  woman  !  "  In  the  nature  of  the  case  some 
sins  are  more  heinous  in  the  sight  of  God  than  others, 
and  in  many  cases  these  more  heinous  sins  are  of  so  deli- 
cate a  character  that  they  are  never  alluded  to  in  the 
pulpit.  Yet  the  very  fact  of  the  delicacy  of  their  en- 
vironment, renders  them  more  dangerous  and  insidious. 

(9) 


10  TEE   CROWNING  SIN  OF  THE  AGE. 

The  prophetic  office  has  not  ceased.  The  true  preacher 
is  still  a  prophet.  Christ  himself,  the  greatest  of  all 
prophets,  forbore  not  to  lift  his  voice  against  every  sin 
which  presented  itself  before  him.  His  servant  can,  if 
faithful  to  his  commission,  do  no  less.  The  minister  of 
the  gospel  who,  faithless  to  his  solemn  office  and  his  high 
responsibilities,  allows  the  people  to  perish  unwarned, 
is  a  false  prophet,  and  may  well  heed  that  solemn  word  : 
"  My  people  are  destroyed  for  lack  of  knowledge  :  because 
thou  hast  rejected  knowledge,  I  will  also  reject  thee,  that 
thou  shalt  be  no  priest  to  me."     Hosea  iv.  6 ;  2  Peter  iii. 

I  should  feel  myself  unworthy  of  the  office  I  hold  as 
an  ambassador  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  did  I  not  lift  my 
voice  in  the  name  of  God  Almighty  against  that  which  I 
regard  as 

THE    CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE. 

It  is  the  paramount  sin  which  lies  at  the  root  of  our 
spiritual  life.  A  sin  which,  secret  in  its  nature,  cannot 
fail  to  paralyze  its  pure  Christian  life,  and  neutralize  every 
effort  for  righteousness  and  holiness  which  the  church 
puts  forth.  A  sin  of  such  delicacy  that  people  affect  to 
be  shocked  when  it  is  publicly  alluded  to,  and  yet  a  sin 
which  is  practiced,  applauded  and  commended  so  widely 
in  private,  that  even  the  children  are  not  ignorant  of  its 
prevalence  among  their  elders.  Indeed  a  sin  in  which,  in 
many  cases,  daughters  are  deliberately  nurtured  and 
trained,  so  that  when  opportunity  is  presented  for  its 
practice,  the  conscience  is  so  stultified  and  suborned  by 
long  training  and  familiarity  with  its  hellish  and  poisonous 
consequences,  that  it  is  committed  without  compunction. 
People  much  concerned  about  the  "  tithe  of  mint  and 
cummin  "  of  other  minor  requirements  of  nineteenth  cen- 
tury Pharisaism,  do  not  scruple  to  omit  the  weightier 
matters  of  the  law  of  God  concerning  the  sin  of  which 
I  purpose  to  speak.     There   can   never  be  a  weightier 


TEE    CROWNING    SIN    OF    TEE    AGE.  11 

subject  submitted  to  the  enlightened  conscience  of  any- 
Christian  community  than 

THE    ETHICS    OF    MARRIAGE. 

The  institution  of  marriage  lies  at  the  foundation  of  the 
Church  and  the  State.  Marriage  is  the  Gibraltar  of  virtue, 
the  basis  of  the  home,  the  bulw  ark  of  the  commonwealth, 
at  once  the  ward  and  the  guardian  of  the  Church  of  God. 
It  was  founded  in  Eden  by  God  himself.  It  was  hallowed 
in  Cana  of  Galilee  by  the  presence  and  benediction  of  our 
divine  Lord.  It  is  protected  by  the  laws  of  all  Christian 
nations,  and  is  in  an  especial  sense  fostered,  guarded  and 
held  sacred  by  the  Christian  Church.  Upon  its  sanctity 
and  its  integrity,  and  much  more  upon  the  accomplish- 
ment through  it  of  the  ends  of  its  institution,  does  every- 
thing depend. 

The  destruction  of  the  end  or  purpose  of  an  institution 
is  virtually  the  destruction  of  the  institution  itself.  I 
firmly  believe  that  the  greatest  sin  against  God,  and  the 
greatest  crime  against  society,  in  this  nineteenth  century, 
is  the  covert  attack,  which,  in  one  form  or  other,  ex- 
cused by  one  consideration  or  another,  is  being  waged 
against  God's  institution  of  marriage.  The  Word  of 
God  places  sin,  all  sin,  just  where  God  finds  it,  and  where 
all  deep  search  will  find  it.  The  root  of  all  sin  is  to  be 
found  not  in  the  accidents  of  birth,  environment,  or  edu- 
cation, but  in  lust,  concupiscence.  Not  only  so,  but 
"  when  lust  hath  conceived,  it  bring  eth  forth  sin"  James 
i.  15.  This  is  as  inevitable  as  the  law  that  the  external 
fruit  is  the  product  of  the  internal  life.  "  For  a  good 
tree  bringeth  not  forth  corrupt  fruit ;  neither  doth  a 
corrupt  tree  bring  forth  good  fruit  .  .  .  For  of  thorns 
men  do  not  gather  figs,  nor  of  a  bramble  bush  gather  they 
grapes."     Luke  vi.  43,  44. 

Applying  this  very  general  principle  of  the  teaching 
of  Christ,  as  epitomized  by  the  Apostle  James,   to    the 


12  THE    CROWNING    SIN    OF    TEE    AGE. 

subject  of  marriage,  I  maintain  that  any  marriage  which 
deliberately  sets  about  the  violation  of  God's  law  as  to  the 
end  of  its  institution,  is  the  product,  not  of  righteous- 
ness, or   of  righteous  Nature's  laws,  but  is 

THE    PRODUCT    OF    LUST  ! 

Lust  pure  and  simple.  The  only  difference  between  a 
marriage  of  such  a  character,  and  prostitution,  is  that 
society,  rotten  to  its  heart,  pulpits  afraid  to  cry  aloud 
against  the  crime  and  vice,  and  the  church  conformed 
to  the  world,  have  made  such  a  profanation  of  marriage 
respectable.  To  put  it  in  other  words,  when  two  people 
determine  to  live  together  as  husband  and  wife,  and  evade 
the  consequences  and  responsibilities  of  marriage,  they 
are  simply  engaged  in  prostitution  without  the  infamy 
which  attaches  to  that  vice  and  crime.  Marriage  is  a 
divine  institution.  It  was  founded  by  God  Almighty.  It 
preceded  in  creation  the  institution  of  the  church  and 
civil  society.  When  God  created  Adam  and  gave  him 
dominion  over  the  magnificent  Paradise  of  creation,  and  all 
created  things,  He  said  "It  is  not  good  that  the  man 
should  be  alone  ;  I  will  make  him  an  help  meet  for  him." 
This  was  the  rationale  of  marriage.  The  woman  was 
made  for  the  man's  good.  Man  without  woman  was  in- 
complete. Humanity  without  woman  was  but  half  cre- 
ated. Adam  without  a  wife  was  morally  unfinished,  for 
God  said  it  was  not  good  for  the  man  to  be  alone.  Quaint 
old  Matthew  Henry  says :  "  She  was  not  made  out  of  his 
head  to  top  him,  not  out  of  his  feet  to  be  trampled  upon 
by  him,  but  out  of  his  side  to  be  equal  to  him,  under  his 
arm  to  be  protected,  and  near  his  heart  to  be  beloved." 
Whatever  modern  sinners  may  dream,  there  never  has 
been  and  there  never  will  be  any  advance  upon  the  mor- 
ality established  by  God  in  Eden.  It  is  my  deliberate 
judgment  that  the  experience  of  the  world,  no  less  than 


THE   CROWNING  SIN  OF  THE  AGE.  13 

the  Word  of  God,  agrees  in  the  testimony  that  it  is  im- 
possible for  men  as  a  rule  to  lead  clean,  pure,  virtuous 
lives,  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave,  without  marriage. 

I  would  offer  as  conditions  of  success  to  every  young 
man  starting  out  in  life,  these  three  fundamental  rules  of 
the  late  Henry  Grady  of  Atlanta :  "  Never  gamble,  never 
drink,  and  above  all  marry  early."  Let  a  young  man  be 
poor,  that  is  a  misfortune,  not  a  sin ;  let  a  young  man  be 
uneducated,  that  is  no  crime.  But  marriage  with  either 
of  these  inconveniences  is  a  thousand-fold  preferable  to 
unmarried  life  with  sin,  and  culture,  and  millions. 

One  of  the  most  plausible  attacks  on  marriage  comes, 
from  the  poisonous  advice  of  people  who  say  that  a  man 
should  never  marry  until  he  has  accumulated  a  fortune, 
or  finds  a  wealthy  bride.  In  accumulating  the  fortune, 
he  may,  nay  he  is  most  likely  to  accumulate  a  host  of  evil 
and  sinful  habits,  contrary  alike  to  the  laws  of  God  and 
man ;  and  in  finding  the  wealthy  bride,  he  may  be  secur- 
ing a  woman  whose  fortune  is  with  her,  but  not  in  her ! 
There  are  some  things  in  this  world,  believe  me,  more 
valuable  than  money,  and  the  canons  of  a  spurious  "  best 
society." 

While  the  situation  of  woman  is  so  different  from  man, 
by  reason  of  her  nature,  the  self-sufficiency  of  her  life,  and 
the  sacred  shelter  of  her  home,  nevertheless  the  normal 
condition  of  woman  is  declared  by  Holy  Writ  to  be  mar- 
riage. I  am  aware  that  the  world  contains  many  noble 
women,  who  have  been  blessings  not  only  to  the  church  and 
the  world,  but  to  themselves,  who  have  not  shared  the 
heart  and  home  of  some  son  of  Adam ;  yet  that  is  a  sin- 
ful and  unscriptural  perversion  which  would  teach 
woman,  that  marriage  is  not  also,  with  some  exceptions, 
the  position  in  life  which  God  intended  her  to  fill.  Paul 
in  writing  instructions  on  this  subject  to  Timothy 
said :  "  I  will  therefore  that  the  younger  women  marry, 


14  THE   CROWNING  SIN  OF  THE  AGE. 

bear  children,  guide  the  house,  give  none  occasion  to  the 
adversary  to  speak  reproachfully."     1  Tim.  v.  14. 

It  is  not  strange  that  we  find  the  sin  of  which  I  speak, 
commencing  its  malevolent  assault,  in  the  spirit  of  the 
times,  by  attacking  the  institution  of  marriage  itself.  A 
certain  class  of  older  people  advise,  and  a  certain  class  of 
young  people  seem  to  think,  that  they  must  begin  life  where 
their  parents  left  off.  If  a  young  man  cannot  set  up  the 
kind  of  establishment  his  father  has  secured  after  years 
of  toil  and  labor,  both  on  his  own  part  and  that  of  his 
wife,  the  young  man  is  advised  or  thinks  that  he  must  not 
marry.  This  reasoning  is  vicious,  and  positively  sinful. 
It  is  introducing  the  element  of  lust, — the  lust  of  money 
— into  the  realm  where  love  is  queen,  and  the  inevitable 
consequence  is  that,  "  it  bringeth  forth  sin  :  and  sin  when 
it  is  finished  bringeth  forth  death."  How  appropriate 
the  words  of  John  in  this  connection :  "  For  all  that  is  in 
the  world,  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  and  the  lust  of  the  eyes  and 
the  pride  of  life  is  not  of  the  Father,  but  is  of  the  world. 
And  the  world  passeth  away,  and  the  lust  thereof,  but  he 
that  doeth  the  will  of  God,  abideth  forever.     1  John  ii.  16. 

God  never  intended  marriage  contracts  to  be  formed  in 
the  same  way  that  a  man  buys  a  horse — on  the  basis  of  mere 
money  value.  This  method  is  such  a  violation  of  divine 
law,  that  it  brings  its  penalty  even  in  this  world,  in  the 
unhappiness  of  thousands  of  homes,  and  unfaithfulness 
to  the  marriage  vows,  which  is  one  of  the  most  flagrant 
sins  of  our  time,  witnessed  by  the  adulteries  which 
are  so  prevalent,  and  the  multifarious  records  of  the  divorce 
courts.  No  such  avalanche  of  penalty  could,  in  the 
providence  of  God,  attach  to  anything,  but  outrageous 
God- defying  sin ! 

But  none  the  less  terrible  in  its  effects  on  the  morals 
and  religious  life  of  the  community,  is  the  diabolic  attack 
on  the  institution  of  marriage  in  the  precept  and  practice 


THE   CROWNING  SIN  OF  THE  AGE.  15 

of  the  people,  in  the  utter  perversion  of  its  consequences. 
Children  are  just  as  logical  and  natural  a  product  of  mar- 
riage as  the  fruit  is  of  the  tree.  Marriage  is  attacked  at  the 
root,  by  the  substitution  of  money  or  any  other  lustful 
consideration,  in  the  place  of  that  mutual  love  which  God 
gave  to  man  and  woman  in  Eden.     But  a  more 

OUTRAGEOUS    VIOLATION    OF   ALL    LAW, 

natural  and  revealed,  is  the  cool  and  villainous  contract 
by  which  people  entering  into  the  marital  relation,  engage 
in  defiance  of  the  laws  of  God  and  the  laws  of  the  com- 
monwealth, that  they  shall  be  unincumbered  with  a  fami- 
ly of  children.     "  Disguise  the  matter  as  you  will,"  says 
Dr.  Pomeroy,  "  yet  the  fact  remains  that  the  first  and 
specific  object  of  marriage  is  the  rearing  of  a  family." 
"Be  fruitful  and  multiply  and  replenish  the  earth,"  is 
God's  first  word  to  Adam  after  his  creation.     Gen.  i.  28. 
"  But  we  may  never  hope  to  have  the  marriage  relation 
what    it   ought  to  be,  so  long  as  social  usage  demands 
that  we  pretend  it  is  for  any  or  every  object  except  the 
real  one.     Marriage  has  its  secondary  compensations,  such 
as    the   preservation    of    virtue,   companionship,    etc."* 
But  a  relation  entered  into  which  ignores  the  true  end  of 
marriage — the   birth  and  rearing   of    children,  and   the 
peopling  of  the  home,  the  church  and  the  world, — is  in  the 
sight  of  enlightened  manhood  a  farce  and  a  travesty,  and 
in  the  eye  of  God  a  black  and  infamous  sin.     "  When 
lust  hath  conceived  it  bringeth  forth  sin."     "Sin  is  law- 
lessness," and  is  so  defined  by  Holy  Writ.f     Any  con- 
scientious physician,  who  is  not  an  accessory  before  the 
fact,  or  a  particeps  criminis,  will  testify  that  the  preven- 
tion of  offspring  is  a  violation  of  every  physiological  law 
of  man.     Every  Christian  knows  that  the  offence  is  a 
violation  of  the  highest  moral  law  of  God. 

*  "  The  Ethics  of  Marriage,"  by  H.  S.  Pomeroy,  p. 
|1  John  iii.  4.     Revised  Version. 


16  THE   CROWNING  SIN  OF  THE  AGE. 

The  prevention  of  offspring  is  pre-eminently  the  sin  of 
New  England, — it  is  fast  becoming  the  national  sin  of 
America,  and  if  it  is  not  checked,  it  will  sooner  or  later 
be  an  irremediable  calamity.  This  sin,  as  I  have  shown, 
has  its  roots  in  a  low  and  perverted  idea  of  marriage,  and 
is  fostered  by  false  standards  of  modesty.  In  the  name 
of  God,  and  of  virtue,  how  can  it  be  checked  unless  min- 
isters of  God  cry  out  against  it  ?  Let  us  call  a  spade  a 
spade !  Evil  has  often  wrought  great  ruin  in  the  name 
of  religion.  Paraphrasing  the  dying  words  of  Madame 
Roland  concerning  liberty,  we  may  well  exclaim,  "  Oh ! 
purity,  what  crimes  have  been  committed  in  thy  name ! " 
The  cry  of  purity  is  now  working  against  purity,  in  the 
name  of  purity  itself  !  I  can  forbear  no  longer.  I  believe 
that  this  sin  is  sapping  the  foundations  of  pure  religion ; 
and  until  this  Achan  of  sin  is  weeded  out  of  the  Israel  of 
the  church  and  society,  we  may  expect  nothing  else  but 
a  continued  decay  of  holiness  and  Christian  living.  So- 
ciety is  indifferent,  the  church  asleep,  and  the  public  con- 
science is  dead  in  this  matter.  Men  and  women  do  not 
seem  to  realize  that  not  only  in  the  sacred  Word  of  God, 
but  also  upon  the  Statute  Books  of  the  Criminal  Codes  of 
the  State,  are  laws  which  brand  them  as  criminals  and 
guilty  sinners ! 

The  sin  is  none  the  less  heinous,  and  the  crime  none  the 
less  wicked  when  it  is  performed  by  those  who  affect 
"  the  best  society,"  or  who  with  unworthy  hands  take  the 
bread  and  wine  at  the  communion  table  of  a  dying  Lord, 
who  pronounced  his  blessing  on  the  pure  in  heart. 
Women,  professors  of  Christ's  holy  religion,  according  to 
evidence  in  my  possession,  and  evidence  which  any  one 
may  readily  obtain,  go  about  advising  young  married 
women  to  forestall  the  ordinance  of  God,  by  preventing 
or  obstructing  the  legitimate  end  of  marriage,  the  birth 
and  rearing:  of  children. 


THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE.  17 

Do  these  same  white-walled  sepulchres  of  hell  know 
that  they  are  committing  the  damning  sin  of  Herod  in 
the  slaughter  of  the  innocents,  and  are  accessories  before 
the  fact  to  the  crime  of  murder  ?  Do  women  in  all  cir- 
cles of  society,  both  in  the  church  and  out  of  it,  realize, 
when  counselling  and  practicing  these  diabolical  crimes, 
from  the  guilt  of  which  no  social  standing  or  church  re- 
lationship will  shield,  that  they  will  one  day  fall  under 
the  curse  of  the  Lord,  before  the  great  white  throne  ? 

This  crime  is  so  universal  that  it  is  practiced  indiscrim- 
inately in  our  midst.  I  have  the  evidence  in  my  posses- 
sion of  its  being  practiced  by  all  classes  of  society,  and  I 
feel  that  if  I  do  not  denounce  it  in  the  name  of  God,  that 
the  very  stones  will  cry  out !  God  forbid  that  I  should 
eulogize  the  errors  or  conceal  the  faults  of  Romanism, 
but  it  is  the  one  church  in  New  England  which  is  a  prac- 
tical foe  to  this  hell-born  sin,  which  has  fastened  its  fangs 
and  death-venom  in  the  vital  heart  of  marriage. 

Whatever  the  people  of  other  creeds  and  churches  may 
profess,  the  Roman  Catholic  priesthood,  preaches  the 
doctrine  that  recognizes  marriage  to  be  a  sacrament,  and 
that  what  God  hath  joined  together,  no  man  or  woman 
must  put  asunder  with  impunity ;  and  I  believe  that,  not- 
withstanding the  errors  of  the  Romish  Church,  it  is  to  be 
commended  for  loyalty  to  this  great  law  of  God,  which 
enforces  the  truth  that  the  end  of  marriage  must  not 
be  profaned,  that  "  children  are  an  heritage  of  the 
Lord,"  and  that  the  innocent,  necessary,  and  God-ordained 
fruits  of  marriage  are  sacred  in  their  lives  and  persons, 
born  or  unborn,  however  much  unnatural  and  child-hating 
married  people  may  despise  them.     Psa.  cxxvii.  3-5. 

New  England  is  lifting  her  hands  to-day  with  horror 
at  the  thought  of  Catholic  domination.  We  are  told  that 
the  Roman  Catholics  are  going  to  possess  New  England. 
Through  your  sin  they  may  do  so.     And  if  you  persist 


18  THE   CROWNING  SItf  OF  THE  AGE. 

in  sin,  they  ought  to !  In  God's  providence  and  in  the 
struggle  for  existence  the  fittest  survive,  and  the  weakest 
and  wickedest  become  extinct.  And  the  criterion  of  the 
"  fittest "  of  the  human  race  is  the  standard  that  those 
who  best  subserve  the  end  of  God  in  creating  them,  shall 
survive. 

When  we  find  the  native  New  Englanders  defeating 
the  end  of  marriage  by  the  prevention  of  offspring,  and 
the  Catholic  populations  obeying  God's  laws  in  rear- 
ing families,  we  are  simply  seeing  the  working  of  God's 
natural  law.  It  makes  no  difference  to  God  whether  your 
ancestors 

CAME    OVER    THE    SEA    IN    THE     MAYFLOWER, 

or  in  the  steerage  of  a  Cunarder ;  whether  your  pedigree 
comes  from  a  Puritan,  or  an  assisted  emigrant  from  Cork ; 
whether  you  are  descended  from  the  proud  Huguenots  of 
Navarre,  or  the  Catholic  French  Canadians;  but  one 
thing  is  of  paramount  concern  to  God  :  He  does  intend 
to  fill  this  world  with  righteousness,  and  in  the  progress 
of  divine  evolution,  He  will  see  to  it  that  the  people  who 
violate  His  laws  shall  perish  from  the  earth,  and  that 
those  who  obey  His  precepts  shall  fill  the  places  of  a  dis- 
obedient people. 

It  seems  to  me  a  travesty  on  the  real  condition  of 
things,  that  the  Young  People's  Society  of  Christian 
Endeavor  movement,  which  is  the  latest  religious  phe- 
nomenon of  the  century,  began  in  New  England.  Why 
there  are  less  young  people  in  New  England  outside  of 
the  Romish  communion  than  in  any  other  part  of  the 
country !  And  if  this  wickedness  continues  it  will  soon 
come  to  pass,  through  your  sin,  that  the  places  you  have 
filled  will  be  occupied  by  "  the  sons  of  the  stranger."  If 
the  Romanists  will  obey  God  and  re-habitate  the  crumb- 
ling, decaying,  rotten  wrecks  of  the  home,  the  state,  and 


THE   CROWNING  SIN  OF  THE  AGE.  10 

the  church,  by  obliterating  the  sin  of  preventing  off- 
spring, then  they  will  and  they  ought  to  inherit  and  pos- 
sess the  land,  so  that,  as  in  the  days  agone,  Xew  England 
may  still  boast  of  a  pure  home,  even  if  of  another  re- 
ligion, over  the  mantle  of  which  the  words  of  Christ  may 
be  read  :  "  Suffer  little  children  to  come  unto  me,  and 
forbid  them  not,  for  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 
So  that  she  may  still  boast  of  the  integrity  of  the  family, 
if  not  of  the  state  and  church  which  grows  out  of  and  is 
built  alone  upon  the  corner  stone  of  marriage. 

God  says  to  New  England  as  he  said  to  the  church  at 
Ephesus  :  "  Remember  therefore  from  whence  thou  art 
fallen,  and  repent  and  do  the  first  works ;  or  else  I  will 
come  unto  thee  quickly  and  will  remove  thy  candlestick 
out  of  his  place  except  thou  repent."*  God  has  fourteen 
hundred  millions  of  people  on  this  earth,  and  the  extinc- 
tion of  one  population  for  the  reception  of  another,  is 
simply  God's  taking  a  candlestick  out  of  its  place  and  re- 
placing it  with  a  burning  candle. 

But  the  text  presents  a  still  higher  exhibition  of  law- 
lessness, and  a  still  deeper  degree  of  wickedness :  "  Sin 
ichen  it  is  finished,  bringeth  forth  death  !  "  All  sin  is 
progressive.  Sin  is  cumulative  and  fruitful.  One  sin 
brings  on  another,  until  it  hatches  a  vast  brood  of  evils. 
The  sin  of  marriage  begun  in  lust,  brings  forth  the  sin  of 
prevention  of  offspring,  and  this  sin  in  order  to  accom- 
plish its  purpose  "bringeth  forth  death!"  With  the 
perversion  of  marriage  comes  a  Pandora's  box  of  wicked- 
ness. Death  to  the  innocent,  unborn  life,  death  in  many 
cases  to  the  sinners  themselves,  who  would  pervert  the 
laws  of  God. 

A  vast  army  of  women  have  gone  to  early  graves,  and 
their  death  certificates  have  read  "hemorrhage,"  when 

*Rev.  ii.  5. 


20  THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE. 

the  word  ought  to  have  been  written  "  abortion."  Now 
death  to  human  life,  born  or  unborn,  which  is  not  brought 
about  by  the  command  or  act  of  God,  is  murder !  The 
woman  who  kills  herself  in  attempting  to  prevent  off- 
spring, breaks  the  sixth  commandment  twice  which  says : 
"Thou  shalt  do  no  murder."*  And  in  the  eyes  of  the 
law  of  the  land,  and  of  God,  everyone  who  counsels,  as- 
sists, procures,  encourages,  or  is  in  anywise  privy  to  the 
crime,  is  an  accessory  before  the  fact !  Burn  this  into 
your  consciences  ye  who  encourage  young  women  to  be- 
lieve that  it  is  inconvenient  and  unfashionable  to  bear 
children !  Let  it  startle  you  in  the  night  watches,  as  you 
are  awaked  from  the  sleep  of  sin,  by  the  voice  of  offended 
nature  and  an  offended  God,  ye  who  outrage  the  com- 
mandments of  God  by  innuendoes,  and  counsel  that  unborn 
children  must  be  killed,  even  if  it  kills  the  mother!  In 
the  name  of  Him  whose  minister  I  am,  before  the  high 
court  of  heaven  and  the  bar  of  conscience,  which  is  God's 
monitor  in  all  pure  and  honest  hearts,  I  indict  all  such 
people,  whether  in  the  silks  and  draperies  of  "  the  best 
society,"  or  in  humbler  homes,  whether  in  the  families  of 
clergymen,  or  those  of  their  parishioners,  as  red-handed 
murderers. 

The  consequences  of  this  sin  may,  to  a  certain  extent, 
be  evaded  here  on  earth.  Murder  and  suicide  under  the 
seal  of  a  lying  physician's  certificate  may  j:>erhaps  prevent 
the  infamy  and  the  penalty  of  human  laws,  but  think  you 
not  that  such  fearful  sinners  may  escape  God,  when  the 
dead  small  and  great  shall  stand  before  him.  Many  a 
woman  is  buried  with  Christian  burial,  over  whose  grave 
ought  to  be  j  laced  a  tombstone  with  the  inscription : 

"%lHERE    LIES    A    SUICIDE 

assisted,, to,  the  grave  by  her  murderers; — her  husband, 

*Exodus  xx.  13. .  Ee vised  Version'.- 


THE   CROWNING  SIN  OF  THE  AGE.  21 

her  female  counselors,  and  the  conscienceless  physician." 
We  might  well  waste  no  tears  on  adults  who  bring  upon 
themselves  the  retributive  penalty  of  death  for  such  out- 
rageous sin,  but  it  becomes  a  far  more  sacred  question 
when  we  contemplate  what  this  sin  against  the  ethics  of 
marriage  means — when  we  think  of  the  murder  of 
children  unborn. 

I  know  what  the  miserable  apologists  for  this  vice  and 
crime  say  in  defense  of  it.  I  know  the  lying  anodynes 
with  which  they  lull  their  consciences  to  sleej).  I  know 
the  claim  they  make  that  life  only  begins  at  birth,  or  at  a 
certain  time  prior  to  it.  But  I  know  that  when  they 
make  this  claim  they  lie  !  I  know  that  the  best  biological 
science  o  f  the  century  says  they  lie.  The  claim  that 
there  is  more  evidence  for  the  existence  of  a  soul  at  birth, 
or  at  a  period  prior  to  birth,  than  at  an  earlier  period,  is 
moral  jugglery  and  ethical  hair-splitting.  I  know  that  an 
apple  is  just  as  much  an  apple  when  the  flower  which 
garlanded  it  in  the  spring  is  fallen,  as  it  is  three  months 
later  when  unripe  it  is  wrenched  unnaturally  from  the 
tree  which  bore  it,  or  in  the  autumn  when  in  the  process 
of  nature  it  falls  from  the  stem  and  begins  its  independent 
life,  alone. 

There  is  no  scientist  on  earth  who  will  undertake  to 
affirm  that  when  the  life  of  the  unborn  child  has  once 
begun — and  the  best  science  affirms  that  life  has  besrun 
from  the  first — that  there  is  not  life  as  much  as  at  any 
subsequent  time  before  or  after  birth.  Besides  this  ob- 
jective refutation  of  such  miserable  defenses  of  child- 
murder,  there  is  subjective  proof  of  the  exceeding  sin- 
fulness of  it,  which  proves  it  to  be  murder.  In  the  Ser- 
mon on  the  Mount  our  Lord  showed  most  plainly  that 
sin  and  crime  consists  not  alone  in  the  bare  act,  but  in  the 
inti  nt  of  the  heart  !     To  look  upon  a  woman  with  desire, 


22  THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE. 

or  in  lust,  was  to  have  committed  adultery.     To  be  angry 
with  a  brother  without  a  cause  was  murder.  Matt.  v.  21,  28. 

What  is  the  intention,  when  the  effort  is  made  to  pre- 
vent offspring?  It  is  the  intention  to  prevent,  and  to 
destroy  human  life.  The  laws  of  the  land,  the  conscience 
of  the  most  degraded,  and  the  majestic  law  of  God  unite 
in  pronouncing  it  murder ! 

The  women  of  America  weep  tears  over  the  deluded 
mothers  of  India  and  China,  who  throw  their  infants  to 
the  crocodiles  of  the  Ganges,  or  into  the  "  infant  towers  " 
of  Canton,  and  send  their  contributions  to  convert  them. 
They  do  well.  But  will  they  not  confess  that  they  are 
equally  guilty  with  their  heathen  sisters,  when  they  de- 
stroy the  unborn  babes  which  God  has  given  them  in 
marriage  ?  Oh !  the  offence  is  rank.  It  smells  to  heaven ! 
It  is  commended  and  practiced  so  universally  that  it 
has  crept  into  the  Church  of  God,  and  men  and  women 
who  would  be  astonished  to  hear  that  they  are  not 
Christians,  and  who  perhaps  with  great  pretentions  pray 
for  a  revival  in  the  church,  and  for  the  out-pouring  of 
God's  Holy  Spirit,  are  often  the  guilty  parties.  Women 
who  denounce  drunkenness  and  other  sins  of  much  more 
trivial  importance,  are  they  not  often  more  infamously 
guilty,  before  God?  and  "the  causers  of  these  time- 
less deaths,  as  blameful  as  the  executioners  ?  " 

Let  me  say  then  to  hypocritical  Pharisees,  that  smoking 
a  cigar  may  be  a  filthy  habit,  but  that  abortion  is  murder ! 
And  not  even  the  mask  of  self-righteousness,  nor  the  pale 
of  the  church,  nor  denunciation  of  the  publican,  will  save 
them  from  the  wrath  of  God,  and  the  anathema  :  "  Depart 
from  Me  ye  cursed,"  "  I  never  knew  you ! "  which 
Christ  will  one  day  hurl  from  his  judgment  seat  \ 

I  have  only  brought  the  prisoner  into  court,  and  ar- 
raigned him  at  the  bar  of  God.  Much  more  might  be  said. 


THE   CROWNING  SIN  OF  THE  AGE.  23 

I  have  not  uncovered  the  seething  mass  of  vice  and  in- 
famy which  lies  beneath  the  veiled  and  studied  words 
of  this  discourse.  There  is  a  deeper  hell  beneath,  only 
to  be  portrayed  in  words  which,  it  seems  to  me,  it  is  not 
lawful  for  man  to  utter. 

lean  only  stand  upon  the  awful  precipice  of  this  horri- 
ble chaos  of  sin  and  shame,  which  is  interpenetrating 
society,  and  cry  out  for  God  over  the  fell  miasma  of  this 
dismal  swamp,  full  of 

"Tangled  juniper,  beds  of   weeds, 

With  many  a  fen  where  the  serpent  feeds." 

I  would  asphyxiate  your  moral  life  by  leading  you  fur- 
ther into  the  dark  recesses  of  this  stygian  cavern  of 
pollution  and  crime.  And  so  drawing  the  curtain  of  the 
curse  of  God  Almighty  upon  the  insidious  and  hell-born 
sin  which  in  God's  name  I  have  denounced,  in  the  brief 
space  left  me,  I  wish  to  state  two  or  three  deductions 
which  our  consciences  must  draw  from  this  discussion  of 
truth  in  the  light  of  God's  Word. 

MARRIAGE     A     SACRED     THIXG. 

First  and  foremost,  I  exhort  you  to  help  the  Spirit  of 
God  and  all  true  and  honest  hearts,  in  making  marriage 
what  God  intended  it  to  be,  a  sacred  thing,  secure  against 
the  ravages  of  the  divorce  court,  the  lust  of  money,  the 
lust  of  the  flesh,  and  the  lust  of  the  eyes.  Be  it  known 
that  there  is  one  and  only  one  way  to  prevent  offspring 
legitimately, — where  Nature  and  nature's  God  has  ordered 
it ;  and  that  is  by  a  life  of  celibacy  and  continence.  And 
let  us  remember  that  it  is  a  thousand-fold  worse  to  sin,  and 
to  pervert  marriage,  and  to  murder,  than  to  raise  a  family 
even  with  the  burden  of  poverty  and  debt.  And  oh ! 
may  God  teach  us  the  spirit  of  Christ,  that  we  may  love 
the  little  children,  and  may  it  be  burned  upon  the  sinful 
hearts  of  unmotherly  mothers  and  unfatheriy  fathers  that, 


24         THE    CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE. 

"  it  were  better  that  a  millstone  were  hanged  about  their 
necks  and  they  cast  into  the  sea,  than  that  they  should 
offend  against  one  of  these  little  ones," — born  or  unborn ! 
Luke  xvii.  2. 

Let  us  learn  from  this  that  a  marriage  entered  into 
with  the  avowed  purpose  to  prevent  offspring,  is  a  meretri- 
cious union,  in  which  lust  conceives  and  brings  forth  sin. 
Let  us  also  learn  that  in  the  execution  of  this  sin,  which 
when  it  is  finished  bringeth  forth  death,  that  abortion  and 
all  the  horrid  synonyms  of  the  accursed  butchery  is  red- 
handed  murder  ! 

Now  a  word  to  professing  Christians.  Almost  every 
winter  when  the  frost  strikes  us,  we  procure  evangelists, 
we  call  meetings,  we  gather  crowds,  and  we  try  to  "  get 
up  a  revival."  Israel  was  defeated  ingloriously  and  igno- 
miniously  at  Ai,  when  they  prayed  for  God's  presence, 
because  the  sinning  Aclian  was  in  the  camp,  and  not  until 
they  searched  out  and  exterminated  Achan,  did  Israel 
secure  the  victory  and  the  presence  of  God. 

A  community,  a  church,  or  a  nation  that  will  submit  to 
the  presence  of  the  perversion  of  marriage,  and  u]3holds 
and  practices  abortion,  may  easier  expect  to  turn  stones 
into  bread,  or  stop  the  flow  of  Niagara  by  prayers,  and 
pastors,  and  evangelists,  than  to  revive  and  convert  sinful 
hearts  and  secure  the  blessing  of  God. 

The  perversion  of  marriage  and  abortion  is  the  prevail- 
ing sin  of  New  England,  and  is  fast  becoming  the  national 
sin  of  America !  I  do  not  fear  but  that  God  will  blot  it 
out,  as  thoroughly  as  he  overturned  Sodom  and  Gomorrah, 
but  I  warn  New  England  and  America  to  beware  lest 
God  in  pulling  up  this  iniquity  by  the  roots  will  pull  them 
up  with  it,  and  replant  the  waste  places  with  another  seed 
and  another  stock!  For  "the  time  is  come  that  judg- 
ment must  begin  at  the  house  of  God :    and  if   it  first 


THE    CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE.  25 

begin  at  us,  what  shall  the  end  be  of  them  that  obey  not 
the  gospel  of  God  ?  And  if  the  righteous  scarcely  be 
saved,  where  shall  the  ungodly  and  the  sinner  appear?" 

"  I  am  the  voice  of  one  crying  in  the  wilderness,  pre- 
pare ye  the  way  of  the  Lord,  make  his  paths  straight ! " 
And  as  John  the  Baptist  to  the  apostate  Israel  of  old,  so 
do  I  preach  saying  to  Xew  England  and  to  every 
section  of  America  and  the  world  where  my  words  may 
truthfully  apply  :  "Repent,  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is 
at  hand ! " 

"  May  the  time  come  again  when  maternity  shall  every- 
where be  recognized  as  the  crown  of  womanhood,  and 
when  every  home  in  our  land  shall  contain  a  goodly  num- 
ber of  children,  as  the  heritage  of  the  Lord." 

Then  will  our  homes  be  harmonious  and  happy,  and 
the  church  and  the  state — the  product  of  these  homes, — 
be  prosperous,  pure  and  great ;  the  family,  the  state  and 
the  church,  held  together  by  the  bond  of  mutual  pro- 
tection, shall  advance  onward  and  upward :  "  And  a  little 
child  shall  lead  theml  " 


THE    REVIEWERS    REVIEWED. 


EUPHEMISM. 

The  criticisms  of  the  public  press  both  commendatory  and  ad- 
verse, as  well  as  the  large  number  of  letters  received  concerning 
the  sermon  on  "  The  Crowning  Sin  of  the  Age,"  have  brought  to 
light  many  phases  of  the  profanation  of  marriage  and  the  allied  sub- 
jects. To  have  considered  them  all  in  detail  would  have  diverted 
me  from  my  main  purpose,  and  so  caused  my  discourse  to  have 
missed  its  mark.  One  of  the  patronizing  suggestions  that  has  come 
to  me,  from  several  clergymen,  is  that  my  sermon  should  have  been 
"  toned  down  "  instead  of  being  clothed  with  the  strong  and  dogmatic 
assertions  which  characterized  it.  My  reply  is  that  of  the  simple 
rustic  to  the  demonstrator  of  anatomy  who  desired  to  secure  his 
spinal  vertebrae  for  experimental  investigation :  "  If  you  take  out 
my  back-bone  I  will  throw  in  the  rest !"  To  eliminate  the  categor- 
ical imperative  from  the  domain  of  ethics,  is  to  destroy  the  back- 
bone of  "oughtness."  And  to  gloss  over  the  exceeding  sinfulness 
of  sin,  is  all  that  Satan  could  ask  of  a  sermon.  Euphemism  is,  I 
firmly  believe,  the  bane  of  the  modern  sermon.  Sugar-coated 
preaching,  like  a  sugar-coated  pill  is  too  often  inoperative.  A  ser- 
mon against  sin,  which  does  not  like  a  quivering  spear  hit  the  mark 
of  some  guilty  soul,  is  as  great  a  failure  as  Satan  might  himself 
desire.  I  quote  with  pleasure  in  this  connection  an  extract  from  a 
letter  from  L.  B.  L.,  a  Boston  merchant : — 

"  Too  long  have  our  ministers  remained  silent  upon  this  question. 
Some  of  our  evangelists  it  is  true,  have  given  '  private  talks  to  men 
only/  but  to  such  I  cannot  give  my  approval,  compared  to  your  dis- 
course. The  gospel  is  for  the  people,  the  remedy  for  sin,  whether 
found  in  Holy  Writ  or  preached  from  the  pulpit,  and  the  remedy 
ought  to  be  preached  in  such  a  way,  that  all  may  sit  under  its 
proclamation  and  be  profited  thereby.  May  God  richly  bless  you, 
and  grant  unto  you  all  boldness  in  the  truth." 

29 


30  THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE. 

ENCOMIASTIC. 

A  recent  Scottish  writer,  noting  the  criticism  of  a  parishioner 
upon  preachers,  says :  "  Our  first  minister  was  a  man,  but  he  was 
not  a  minister  ;  our  second  was  a  minister,  but  he  was  not  a  man." 

It  is  refreshing  for  a  minister,  who  rejoices  in  his  manhood,  to 
publish  the  following  extracts  from  a  letter  which  exhibits  the  man, 
and  the  pure  man  in  every  syllable. 

"Roxbury,  Mass.,  Nov.  11,  1891. 

"I  cannot  resist  the  intrusion  of  a  stranger's  congratulatory 
word.  Coming  from  one  outside  the  church,  this  commendation  may 
not  possess  much  value,  however  sincerely  offered,  but  such  as  it  is 
I  give  it  in  the  name  of  Him  who  always  called  things  by  their 
right  names.  Your  sermon  Avas  an  inspiration,  as  much  so  in  kind 
as  were  those  of  Paul's.  And  the  more  that  men  thus  inspired  and 
thus  guided  to  speak  the  truth,  for  truth's  sake,  regardless  of  all 
other  considerations,  will  do  so,  the  stronger  will  come  the  inspira- 
tion and  the  greater  consequent  good  will  they  do.  Your  words 
sound  like  Scripture,  because  they  are  true,  and  because  they  do 
not  beat  about  the  bush. 

There  were  two  things  conspicuous  in  the  preaching  of  Jesus  of 
Nazareth.  He  never  ridiculed  those  who  differed  with  or  opposed 
his  teachings,  and  he  always  spoke  the  truth,  and  did  not  spend 
his  time  struggling  to  disguise  it  in  polite  innuendoes  The  protest- 
ant  world  should  be  covered  so  deep  with  printed  copies  of  that 
sermon,  just  as  delivered,  that  it  would  be  impossible  for  it  to  see 
any  other  printed  matter, — not  even  excepting  the  Book  of  books. 
The  latter  has  lost  its  force  to  them  until  the  truth  shall  have  been 
thoroughly  burned  in.  If  you  could  repeat  that  sermon  fifty-two 
consecutive  times,  there  might  be  some  hope  for  at  least  one  New 
England  town  to  start  with,  and  in  time  we  might  be  able  to  call 
one  'The  Church  of  Christ.' 

While  one  preaching  of  this  sermon  ought  to  have  its  good 
effect,  if  you  could  manage  to  get  the  same  audience  together  for 
52  consecutive  Sundays,  you  might  hope  for  some  good  from  it. 
Still  for  one,  I  have  been  so  greatly  edified  by  its  perusal,  and  in 
the  knowledge  that  such  a  discourse  has  gone  out  from  a  '  Chris- 
tian pulpit '  one  time  more  than  I  had  expected  to  see,  that  I 
would  not  insist  on  the  other  fifty-one  times,  but  will  hope  that 
some  of  the  others  may  get  a  little  courage  and  take  it  up  where 
you  leave  it.  Besides  there  are  probably  fifty-one  other  burning 
topics,  upon  which  you  might  with  great  profit  set  the  ball  rolling, 
the  proper  disposition  of  which  should  result  in  enabling  every 
man  and  woman  in  a  civilized  Christian  land  to  decently  provide 
for  the  children  with  which  God  shall  bless  them.  You  are  to  be 
doubly  congratulated.  Your  avocation  in  life  gives  you  an  oppor- 
tunity to  speak  to  the  people,  and  you  have  used  that  opportunity 
to  speak  the  truth !  Sincerely  yours,  I.  N.  P." 


THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE.  31 

While  I  do  not  sympathize  with  any  general  aspersion  upon  my 
brethren  in  the  ministry,  whom  I  believe  to  be  more  faithful  to  the 
cause  of  truth  and  of  God  than  any  other  class;  of  men,  yet  the 
above  letter  is  remarkably  contirmed  by  the  facts  of  my  own  ex- 
perience. The  disparity  between  the  sympathy  and  commendation 
which  I  have  received  from  clergymen  and  the  laity  is  over- 
whelmingly on  the  side  of  the  latter.  Ministers  are  too  often 
afraid  to  handle  the  delicate  matters  referred  to,  doubtless  failing 
to  recognize  that  "  The  Word  of  God  is  quick  and  powerful,  and 
sharper  than  any  two-edged  sword."  The  recognition  of  the  tem- 
per and  force  of  this  weapon  will  make  any  David  courageous 
against  every  Goliath  of  evil.  "  Is  not  my  word  like  a  fire  saith 
the  Lord,  and  like  a  hammer  that  breaketh  the  rock  in  pieces  %  " 

ECONOMICS. 

Turning  for  a  moment  from  the  form  and  method  of  the  attack 
on  the  heinous  sins  which  I  have  denounced,  a  letter  from  a  prom- 
inent Real  Estate  Agent  in  Lynn,  Mass.,  opens  up  another  phase  of 
the  subject  which  will  startle  many,  and  calls  for  the  righteous  in- 
dignation of  all  lovers  of  the  family  and  the  home. 

"  I  have  read  and  re-read  with  very  great  pleasure  and  profit 
your  sermon.  I  wish  you  might  have  touched  upon  a  topic,  which 
we  as  agents  for  tenement  houses  have  to  meet  every  day.  Eor  in- 
stance, a  landlord  will  place  in  our  hands  a  house  to  rent,  with  pos- 
itive instructions  to  rent  to  no  one  having  children.  A  party  calls  and 
inquires  for  a  desirable  tenement.  We  are  obliged  to  ask  if  they 
have  children,  and  if  so,  we  must  answer  'No.' 

This  to  my  mind  is  all  wrong,  and  if  you  could  have  met  this 
'horn  of  the  dilemma'  and  suggested  some  remedy,  then  a  party 
would  not  reply,  'Must  I  kill  my  children  in  order  to  secure  a  ten- 
ement?' What  is  the  inducement  for  a  young  couple  to  marry 
and  raise  children,  if  they  cannot  rent  a  house  to  live  in  as  their 
family  commences  to  increase  1 

I  believe  that  every  one  should  become  the  possessor  of  a  home 
of  their  own,  however  humble,  and  their  children  know,  as  they 
grow  up,  what  it  is  to  have  and  enjoy  a  home  in  every  sense  of  that 
endearing  word.  When  many  of  our  landlords — and  professing 
Christian  men — having  children  of  their  own,  utterly  refuse  to 
allow  their  tenements  to  be  occupied  by 'families  with  children,' 
and  when  honest  and  good  paying  tenants  are  refused  houses, 
simply  because  they  have  one  or  more  dear  children,  it  would  seem 
that  some  remedy  might  be  devised  to  remedy  this  enormous  and 
damnable  evil. 

And  when  I  have  seen  the  tears  fall  from  the  mothers'  eyes  as 
they  look  upon  the  dear  ones  God  has  given  them,  to  know  they 


32  THE    CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE. 

are  refused  a  roof  to  shelter  them,  I  cannot  think  the  mother's 
heart  wished  that  they  had  never  been  born  !  " 

Perhaps  the  skeptical  who  aver  that  my  sermon  is  sensational 
may  find  much  food  for  reflection  here.  If  a  temptation  of  the 
most  imperative  and  insidious  nature  had  been  devised  by  brains 
infernal,  to  promote  the  sins  of  abortion  and  infanticide  among  the 
humbler  and  plainer  classes,  who  are  in  all  countries  the  purest  and 
most  virtuous,  no  more  successful  stratagem  could  be  invented.  I 
am  no  advocate  of  those  who  lift  up  a  voice  against  capital ;  but  I 
warn  the  capitalists  of  America  that  "  though  hand  join  in  hand, 
the  wicked  shall  not  be  unpunished  !  "  Men  of  capital  must  learn 
that  they  are  not  the  owners  in  fee  simple  of  their  tenements,  but 
are  merely  trustees  for  God  Almighty,  the  ultimate  proprietor. 
They  will  one  day  be  called  into  account  for  their  stewardship. 
"Woe,"  says  Jeremiah,  "to  him  that  buildeth  his  house  by  un- 
righteousness, and  his  chambers  by  wrong !  Did  not  thy  father  eat 
and  drink  and  do  judgment  and  justice,  and  then  it  was  well  with 
him?  He  judged  the  cause  of  the  poor  and  needy.  But  thine  eyes 
and  thine  heart  are  not,  but  for  thy  covetousness,  and  for  to  shed 
innocent  blood,  and  for  oppression  and  for  violence  to  do  it."  Jer. 
xxii.  13,  15-17.  There  is  a  remedy  for  this  fell  blot  on  the  econo- 
mics of  our  Christian  Civilization.  The  remedy  is  the  gospel  of 
Christ,  and  the  awakening  of  a  conscience  seared  with  oppression  and 
covetousness. 

SARTOR    RESARTUS. 

Among  the  specious  arguments  advanced  apologetically,  for  the 
practice  of  abortion,  under  its  various  synonyms,  is  the  plausible 
plea  that  the  sin  is  justifiable  because  of  the  ill  health  of  the  inept 
mother.  But  whence  the  ill  health?  Do  the  special  pleaders 
recognize  the  fact  that  in  the  divine  arrangement,  no  dallying  with 
symptoms  will  suffice,  but  that  the  grand  assize  will  turn  on  causes? 
Testimony  might  be  produced  in  these  pages  from  the  very  highest 
medical  authority,  that  in  the  largest  number  of  cases  the  condition 
where  child-bearing  would  not  be  permissible  on  account  of  the 
invalid,  has  been  produced  by  previous  interference  with  the  course 
of  nature  in  the  very  sin  inveighed  against  in  this  book. 

Violation  of  natural  law  inevitably  meets  with  penalty,  and  it 
is  but  a  begging  of  the  question  to  cause  the  bar  to  parenthood,  and 
then  plead  it  in  extenuation  of  the  sin  primarily  committed. 

All  life  is  from  God.  He  pours  its  living  tides  through  human 
forms,  perpetuating  families  and  races,  until  in  the  descendants  of  a 


THE    CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE.  33 

single  faithful  man  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  may  be  blessed. 
To  stay  this  tide  of  life,  and  thwart  this  divine  purpose  is  a  fearful 
offense  against  society,  against  the  nation,  against  God. 

Perhaps  no  one  cause  is  more  far-reaching  in  this  direction  than 
the  fashions  and  fashion  plates  which  pervert  the  minds,  distort  the 
bodies,  ruin  the  health,  and  blast  the  lives  of  so  many  women. 

Those  parts  of  the  body  which  God  has  made  flexible,  fashion 
encases  in  a  rigid  coat  of  mail,  drying  up  the  fountains  of  vitality, 
and  cramping  and  enfeebling  the  organs  of  life. 

These  fashions  give  us,  instead  of  noble,  motherly  women,  a  lot 
of  sickly,  nervous,  frivolous,  hysterical  things,  whose  pallid  and 
cadaverous  aspect  is  suggestive  of  the  sepulchre !  Among  the 
fashionable  women  of  the  day  not  one  in  ten  can  draw  a  natural 
breath  to  save  her  life,  not  one  in  twenty  enjoys  the  robust  health 
which  is  her  right.  Hence,  with  such  a  style  of  dress,  healthful 
and  happy  maternity  is  an  utter  impossibility. 

The  race  that  is  thus  exterminating  itself  is  one  of  the  noblest 
of  earth.  God  sifted  the  nations  to  procure  the  seed  with  which 
to  plant  our  fair  America.  The  root  of  this  evil  is  practical  infi- 
delity, neglect  of  the  Bible,  and  consequent  disregard  of  God  and 
his  laws.  It  was  this  which  made  half  the  births  in  Paris  illegiti- 
mate during  the  Reign  of  Terror,  and  which  reaches  similar  results 
in  European  cities  where  the  Bible  is  not  read  by  the  people.  It  is 
this  same  disposition,  which,  seeking  indulgence  without  regard  to 
obligation,  uses  the  evil  resources  of  modern  intelligence  to  thwart 
the  Creator's  purposes.  Culture  or  refinement  is  not  a  remedy, 
but  an  aggravation.  Cultivated  and  refined  Greece  and  Rome,  like 
Athens,  and  Corinth,  amid  the  splendor  wealth  and  luxury  of  the 
empire,  merely  produced  a  population  of  cultivated  and  refined 
brutes,  in  which  vice  reigned  so  wantonly  that  it  produced  an 
emperor  who  was  at  once  a  priest,  an  atheist  and  a  god !  To  have 
a  family  then  was  regarded  as  a  misfortune,  because  the  childless 
were  courted  with  extraordinary  assiduity  by  crowds  of  fortune 
hunters.* 

"Women,"  Seneca  says  "married  in  order  to  be  divorced,  and 
were  divorced  in  order  to  marry ;  and  noble  Roman  matrons  counted 
the  years  not  by  the  consuls,  but  by  their  discarded  or  discarding 
husbands."! 

The  fashionable,  aesthetic  and  intellectual  tendencies  of  our  age, 
divorced  from  religion,  are  rapidly  whirling  American  society  into  a 
*Tacitus  Geim.  20.       tSen.  De  Benef.  iii.  16. 


34  THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE. 

similar  vortex.  The  critics  have  not  disdained  to  denounce  my 
sermon  as  pessimistic,  and  do  me  the  honor  to  call  me  "  the  Ameri- 
can Tolstoi."  If  so,  then  John  the  Baptist  and  Isaiah  were  pessi- 
mists, and  their  burning  indignation  at  the  vices  of  their  age  far  out- 
ran the  il  penseroso  of  the  Russian  Count. 

MARRIAGE  AND  DIVORCE. 

The  perversion  of  marriage  and  its  consequences  is  an  Octopus 
reaching  out  its  numerous  deadly  tentacles,  and  grappling  with,  and 
affecting  almost  every  relation  of  life.  It  is  one  of  the  most  fruitful 
causes  of  divorce  and  of  the  difficulties  leading  thereto.  A  promi- 
nent manufacturer  of  Lawrence,  Mass.,  writes  as  follows: 

"  Although  a  stranger  to  you,  I  take  the  liberty  to  thank  you  for 
the  stand  you  have  taken  in  this  matter,  a  stand  which  requires  no 
ordinary  courage  in  any  man.  I  have  felt  for  a  long  time  that  the 
discussion  on  the  divorce  question  in  New  England  did  not  touch 
the  root  of  the  matter,  and  that  other  reasons  might  be  given  for 
the  freedom  from  this  evil  in  the  Catholic  Church,  than  are  made 
public. 

There  is  no  doubt  in  my  mind  that  when  there  is  marriage  with- 
out a  willingness  on  the  part  of  the  wife  to  take  upon  herself  the 
duties  of  maternity,  the  closest  bond  that  unites  both  husband  and 
Mrife  is  wanting  It  is  a  mere  union  to  gratify  their  passions,  and 
will  result  when  these  passions  are  satiated  in  the  mutual  loathing 
that  leads  to  divorce.  There  can  be  no  true  mutual  respect  when 
such  habits  prevail.  I  speak  of  the  wife  as  the  offending  party,  as 
I  believe  that  in  many  cases  the  husband  is  more  willing  to  do  his 
part  in  becoming  the  father  of  the  family,  than  the  wife.  And  it  is 
an  awful  probability  that  the  membership  of  our  churches  are 
grievously  sinning  in  this  respect.  In  no  other  way  can  we  account 
for  the  large  number  of  American  families  in  the  church  where 
both  husband  and  wife  possess  ordinary  health,  yet  have  at  most 
but  one  or  two  children ;  in  many  cases  none  at  all. 

And  while  the  base  sort  of  literature  on  this  subject,  and  means 
of  prevention  can  be  freely  obtained,  no  voice  may  be  raised 
against  this  crying  evil,  without  reproach  from  those  who  would 
not  have  the  subject  alluded  to,  lest  it  shock  some  prudish  ears! 
.May  you  be  strengthened  to  continue  the  good  work,  and  meet  with 
the  success  that  you  deserve." 

While  upon  this  subject,  I  recur  to  a  letter  from  a  woman 
in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  who  with  true  matronly  indignation  and  wisdom, 
points  out  the  assault  which  sinning  husbands  make  upon  the  cita- 
del of  their  own  coveted  happiness,  in  encouraging  the  sin  against 
marriage  by  their  wives. 
The  wife  who  successfully  evades  the  natural  consequences  of  the 


TEE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE.  35 

marriage  relation,  if  tempted  to  infidelity,  soon  fancies  and  perceives 
how  easily  she  may  violate  the  marital  rights  of  the  husband,  when 
the  evidence  of  her  complicity  in  stolen  sin  is  so  easily  obliter- 
ated. Children  are  said  to  be  the  best  marriage  certificates. 
They  may  as  truthfully  be  said  to  be  the  greatest  barrier  against  a 
violation  of  the  Seventh  Commandment.  The  perversion  of  mar- 
riage is  a  most  fruitful  cause  of  adultery,  and  the  sinners  who 
practice  it;  may  profitably  study  their  profanation  of  the  end  of  the 
marriage  relation  in  the  light  of  their  own  fidelity. 

A  CONGRESSMAN'S  VIEW. 

"Canton,  Mass.,  Nov.  9,  1891. 

Rev.  B.  D.  Sinclair : 

I  want  to  thank  you  for  your  sermon  printed  in  the  Boston  Globe 
this  morning.  If  I  had  a  voice  that  would  drown  the  thunder  of 
Niagara,  I  would  indorse  all  that  you  say  in  reference  to  the  sin 
that  is  crying  to  heaven. 

Another  generation  has  arisen  here  that  "knows  not  Joseph,"  and 
they  will  soon  control  Massachusetts  and  New  England  in  conse- 
quence of  that  which  you  denounce.  It  is  high  time  that  the  pul- 
pit, the  press,  and  the  platform  should  cry  out. 

The  "Committee  of  One  Hundred"  who  hold  meetings  in  Boston, 
denounce  the  opponents  of  the  public  schools,  and  go  home  to  one 
solitary  child  or  none ;  and  the  opponents  of  the  public  schools  go 
home  to  half  a  dozen  or  more. 

The  free  public  school,  the  Christian  Sabbath,  all  the  other  insti- 
tutions that  we  hold  dear,  and  the  perpetuity  of  the  Republic  itself, 
are  in  danger,  from  the  destruction  of  the  American  people,  by  the 
causes  pointed  out  by  you.  Once  more  I  thank  you  for  your  bold 
and  fearless  utterances  upon  this  subject.  I  trust  the  same  may 
have  a  wide  circulation.  Very  Respectfully, 

ELIJAH  A.  MOESE. 

A  note  to  Hon.  E.  A.  Morse,  M.  C.  asking  for  the  liberty  of 
publishing  his  patriotic  and  encouraging  words  brought  forth  the 
following  additional  letter : 

"  Rev.  B.  D.  Sinclair  : 

I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  receipt  of  yours  of  the  12th. 
You  are  at  liberty  to  make  any  use  of  my  letter  that  you  see  fit. 
If  I  had  known  that  it  was  to  be  published,  I  would  have  made  it 
stronger  and  said  more. 

You  deserve  the  lasting  gratitude  of  all  lovers  of  their  kind. 
There  is  a  trial  going  on  in  Brockton  now,  of  a  woman  who  keeps  a 
house  where  the  crime  you  describe  is  perpetrated.  Among  the 
witnesses  who  testified  and  were  summoned  by  the  government,  is 
the  wife  of   a  prominent  physician  in  this  district,  who  made  no 


36  THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE. 

secret  of  saying  that  she  had  resorted  to  this  woman's  treatment, 
that  the  treatment  was   successful. 

This  crime  against  God  and  man  is  not  confined  to  the  poor.  It 
is  largely  common  among  the  rich  and  well-to-do.  Like  Isaiah  of 
old  may  you  have  grace  to  "  cry  aloud  and  spare  not "  and  lift  up 
your  voice  like  a  trumpet,  and  "  show  my  people  their  sins,  and  the 
house  of  Jacob  their  transgression." 

Yours  for  God  and  home  and  native  land,  and  the  perpetuity  of 
the  ancient  New  England  family  of  Puritan  and  Protestant  lineage. 

ELIJAH   A.   MORSE." 

«  HANDS  UP  ! " 

This  is  a  familiar  utterance  of  western  banditti.  Hands  are  often 
lifted  up  by  assailants  also.  Already  my  friends  the  critics,  have 
raised  the  alarm  of  "indelicacy"  over  my  sermon,  and  have  "lifted 
up  their  hands  in  holy  horror,"  because  a  minister  should  so  outrage 
the  proprieties  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  as  to  call  attention  to  the 
secret  sins,  which  are  being  practiced  in  fancied  immunity,  when 
more  trivial  vices  are  reproved  to  withdraw  attention  from  the 
grosser  crime. 

The  following  letter  from  a  gentleman  in  Springvale,  Maine,  is  a 
genuine  tonic  amid  the  depressing  influences  of  prudishness  and 
mock  modesty. 

"  I  am  so  impressed  with  the  absolute  truth  of  your  sermon  that 
I  cannot  resist  the  temptation  to  offer  my  congratulations  to  one 
who  so  fearlessly  handled  the  question  of  the  perversion  of  the 
ends  of  marriage.  It  is  the  crying  sin  of  New  England,  and  unless 
the  church  be  aroused  in  the  matter,  the  day  of  doom  for  New 
England  society  is  near  at  hand.  No  doubt  many  hands  will  go  up 
in  holy  horror  to  think  that  so  delicate  a  matter  should  be  preached 
upon  from  the  pulpit,  and  possibly  some  of  your  own  church  mem- 
bers will  'wish  that  Mr.  Sinclair  had  not  talked  so.'  But  you  may 
put  all  such  persons  down  as  guilty  of  the  sin  condemned !  Please 
accept  my  sincerest  thanks,  with  the  earnest  hope  that  the  sermon 
may,  to  a  great  degree  have  the  effect  of  arousing  the  women  of 
New  England  to  a  sense  of  whither  they  are  drifting." 

GUILTY  HUSBANDS. 

It  was  not  by  any  means  my  purpose  in  the  sermon  to  divert  the 
arrows  of  denunciation  from  reaching  any  who  are  guilty  of  a 
violation  of  marriage  ethics. 

"  Oh  !  many  a  shaft  at  random  sent, 
Finds  marks  the  archer  little  meant." 

In  saying  "Thou  art  the  woman ! "  I  have  also  laid  the  indictment 
for  the  father,  "Thou  art  the  man!" 


THE     CROW XIX G    SIX    OF    THE    AGE.  37 

The  following  from  an  earnest  woman  of  Newburyport,  Mass., 
with  a  message  brimful  of  truth,  demands  a  place  here  in  justice  to 
a  good  cause. 

Among  the  criticisms  and  comments  that  the  recent  sermon  on 
marriage  called  out,  I  cannot  help  wondering  if  it  occurred  to  any- 
body else  as  it  has  to  me — to  go  a  step  further  into  the  wilderness 
than  the  preacher  did — and  while  acknowledging  the  full  force  and 
truth  of  all  that  he  said,  and  more,  ask  why  are  all  these  things  so  ? 
AVho  is  to  blame  for  it  ?  And  these  points  being  answered  accord- 
ing to  various  individual  lights  and  experiences  the  next,  and  to  me 
inevitable  question,  follows  :  "  What  are  you  going  to  do  about  it  1 " 

It  is  generally  now  as  it  was  in  the  days  of  Adam — whenever  the 
voice  of  the  Lord  reaches  man  with  any  accusing  force  his  answer  is 
still  the  same: — "The  woman  that  thou  ga  vest  me,  she  tempted  me." 
And  in  this  special  and  particular  case,  nine  men  out  of  ten  would 
protest  vigorously  that  "  they  were  not  to  blame ;  the  customs  and 
claims  of  society;  the  dread  of  physical  suffering;  the  inconveni- 
ence or  expense  ;  or  restraint  imposed  by  the  cares  of  a  young  fam- 
ily > " — all  these  or  similar  reasons  conspire  to  influence  women 
against  the  "  natural  and  logical  result  of  marriage." 

Myself,  "but  yet  a  woman,"  I  am  convinced  that  we  have  always 
borne  more  a  thousand  times  than  our  share  of  the  reproaches  and 
contumely  resulting  from  men's  indulgences,  ever  since  that  un- 
fortunate scene  in  the  garden  of  Eden ;  and  that,  from  that  time 
down  to  the  present  and  from  that  event,  so  incessantly  and  un- 
justly brought  up  against  "  the  woman" — to  the  subject  which 
Mr.  Sinclair  has  so  powerfully  handled,  there  is  no  fault,  mis- 
fortune or  sin  that  a  woman  can  be  guilty  of,  that  some  "  he  "  or 
other  is  not  more  truly  responsible  for  than  she  is. 

Not  that  "  two  wrongs  make  a  right,"  as  the  saying  is,  or  that  the 
evil  or  corrupt  influence  of  any  man  ought  to  be  any  excuse  for  the 
wrong  doing  of  any  woman.  But  we  are  considering  things  as  they 
are — not  as  they  ought  to  be.  So  put  the  blame  where  it  belongs. 
Cast  the  beam  out  of  thine  own  eye,  and  attack  the  men,  rather 
than  the  women,  even  by  insinuation  or  implication. 

Why  do  we  this,  or  any  other  evil,  or  vanity,  or  foolishness  1 
"Why  do  we  sacrifice  ourselves,  our  comfort,  our  health, — the  domes- 
tic ties  that  all  women  in  their  real  hearts  love  and  seek  %  For  the 
same  reason  that  we  indulge  those  vanities ;  the  same  reason  that 
we  control  our  tempers, — that  we  assume  a  smile  rather  than  a 
scowl  or  a  sigh,  or  even  wear  "blue"  when  our  hearts  feel  black; — 
to  please,  gratify  or  pacify  some  man  or  other,  who  after  all  is  more 
likely  than  not  to  treat  us  as  the  swine  did  the  pearls. 

Few,  if  any  women  object  of  or  for  themselves  to  the  confine- 
ment of  family  cares.  It  is  only  for  the  sake  of  the  men  whose 
property  they  happen  to  be,  that  they  try  or  wish  to  avoid  the  duty, 
self-denial,  anxiety  or  even  suffering  necessary  for  bringing  up  a 


38  THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE. 

family  of  children.  And  if  the  men  would  fulfill  even  the  smallest 
fraction  of  the  duties  which  belong  as  much  to  one  parent  as  to  the 
other,  the  women  would  willingly,  if  not  gladly,  endure  the  pains 
as  well  as  the  pleasures  which  result  from  marriage,  and  fill  up  the 
good  old  New  England  families  which  are,  "  Oh,  the  pity  of  it — ! " 
growing  so  lamentably  and  lonesomely  small  and  thin. 

Yes,  Mr.  Sinclair,  your  "  eyes  have  seen  the  fearful  sign  to  which 
our  eyes  are  blind."  It  has  been  yours  to  openly  and  forcibly  call 
our  attention  to  it,  and  to  try  arouse  us  to  a  horror  of  it. 

Now  in  the  name  of  all  women  who  love  our  homes,  who  would  love 
our  children  (if  we  had  any),  go  on.  Do  not  stop  here.  Denounce  the 
men  who  deprive  us  of  our  birthright  of  domestic  happiness.  Call 
them  to  account  for  the  indulgences  which  so  weaken  us  that  we  are 
often  physically  unable  to  achieve  that  for  which  we  are  willing  to 
suffer.  Call  them  to  account  for  the  selfishness  which  makes  it  often 
impossible  for  women  to  indulge  themselves  in  the  comforts  neces- 
sary to  the  conditions  of  successful  child-bearing  and  rearing.  Call 
them  to  exercise  the  tenderness,  the  consideration,  the  patience  to- 
wards their  wives  in  that  condition  which  they  would  show  to  any 
animal  in  their  possession,  instead  of  laughing  at  us,  or  making  us 
the  subject  of  ribald  jokes;  teach  them  to  feel  for  us  something 
more  than  the  little-better-than-his-dog,  a-little-dearer-than-his-horse, 
feeling ;  show  him  that  his  duty  and  responsibility  does  not  begin 
and  end  with  providing  merely  food,  shelter  and  such  clothing  as 
may  be  for  his  child  as  well  as  his  wife, — and  we  wo^nen  will  give 
you  no  cause  to  call  us  murderers,  abortionists,  or  suicides.  Teach 
the  men,  instead  of  the  women,  that  they  should  make  themselves 
companionable,  agreeable  after  marriage  as  well  as  before  ;  to  study  a 
little  the  self-denial  and  self-sacrifice  which  we  have  studied  so  long. 
So  shall  a  race  spring  up  and  call  you  blessed :  who  shall  honor 
their  father  and  their  mother  because  they  see  them  honor  each 
other;  and  love  each  other  because  their  parents  loved  them  before 
they  came  into  the  world,  as  well  as  afterward.  Truly  it  was  said 
that  a  child's  education  begun  nine  months  before  it  was  born ;  and 
if  it  be  along  the  lines  of  loving  consideration  and  gratitude  there 
will  be  fewer  cases  of  reprehensible  or  unfilia!  conduct  in  the  next 
generation  than  there  have  been  in  this  one. 

Why  is  it  that  so  many  children  who  are  known  as  nice  "  pretty  be- 
haved," promising  boys,  grow  up  to  be  such  wretches  asthey  too  often 
prove  ?  Because  there  comes  a  time  when  they  follow  their  father's 
example  rather  than  their  mother's  precepts ,  when  too  often  their 
own  fathers  lead  and  encourage  them  to  be  what  they  call "  manly," 
"  self-reliant,"  and  so  on,  against  all  the  prayers  and  beseechments 
which  their  poor,  helpless,  lonely  mothers  can  put  forth.  Then  the 
dear  good  boy  becomes — thanks  to  the  "  man  "  whose  child  he  is — a 
"  chip  of  the  old  block," — and  the  mother  looks  on  in  agony  which 
exceeds  that  which  brought  him  into  the  world,  to  see  the  child 
she  loved  and  suffered  for,  stolen  from  her,  and  made  into  a  creature 


THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE.  39 

for  some  other  poor  woman  to  be  deluded  by  for  a  time — and  after 
a  while  to  learn  in  her  own  turn — to  either  dread  or  despise ;  or  if 
the  child  be  another  woman,  to  see  her  suffer  the  griefs,  sorrow  and 
misery  in  her  turn.  What  wonder  that  so  many  women  dread, 
and,  if  possible,  avoid  child-bearing  ? 

The  sermon  was  able,  was  eloquent — was  in  fact  everything  that 
it  ought  to  be,  so  far  as  it  went.  Now  preach  some  more,  Mr.  Sin- 
clair, but  do  not  preach  to  old  maids,  or  to  young  boys  and  girls 
who  go  to  listen  from  vulgar  and  prurient  curiosity.  Preach 
strictly  to  married  men  or  those  about  to  be  married,  and  married 
women." 

"THAT  OLD    SERPENT,  THE  DEVIL." 

"Murder  will  out,"  is  a  proverb  that  has  passed  indelibly  into 
current  speech.  One  who  has  made  a  study  of  this  subject  cannot 
fail  to  recognize  the  slimy  trail  of  the  serpent,  on  this  question,  as 
as  he  leaves  his  impress  upon  the  minds  and  hearts  of  people,  other- 
wise good.  Many  entertain  an  honest  enquiry  in  this  vital  matter 
of  "  having  "  children.  Let  the  following  extract  from  a  letter  from 
a  resident  of  Boston  serve  as  a  sample  of  the  universal  query.  I 
shall  endeavor  to  answer  the  question  frankly : — 

"  I  have  one  child  two  years  old  after  three  years  of  marriage, 
and  when  we  feel  the  time  has  come,  if  the  good  Lord  is  willing,  more 
may  come,  but  I  maintain  that,  until  we  see  our  way  clear  to  take 
care  of  another  helpless  love,  until  then  we  are  justified  in  not  hav- 
ing it.  Of  course,  I  may  be  wrong ;  and  if  so  why  I  hope  for  light. 
I  write  this  to  ask  if  I  am,  in  your  opinion,  very  far  from  right  V 

As  far  from  right  as  the  east  is  from  the  west  I  This  letter  com- 
mends itself  for  the  manly  frankness  of  the  writer,  who  is  apparently 
an  honest  searcher  after  truth,  and  only  voices  that  which  the  ear 
does  not  often  hear,  but  what  has  entered  into  a  large  proportion  of 
the  human  heart. 

The  question  is  not  one  of  expediency,  but  a  question  of  absolute 
right  and  wrong.  Is  it  right  or  wrong  to  violate  the  laws  of 
nature  and  of  God  ?  Let  the  conscience  give  her  only  answer  !  A 
distinguished  physician  has  well  said :  "  It  is  surprising  to  what  an 
extent  the  laity  believe  that  medical  science  knows  how  to  control 
the  birth-rate.  Just  here  let  me  say  that  I  know  of  but  one  pre- 
scription which  is  both  safe  and  sure,  namely,  that  the  sexes  shall  re- 
main apart."* 

The  question  of  support  herein  involved,  however  difficult  from  a 
social  standpoint,  is  easily  made  plain  from  the  standpoint  of  morality 
*H,  S.  Pomeroy,  M.  D.    "Ethics  of  Marriage." 


40  THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE. 

and  religion.  God  never  created  a  mouth  without  food  to  fill  it.* 
And  he  created  covering  for  every  body  which  he  has  made.  Prob- 
ably He  will  not  provide  silks  and  satins  and  Spanish  laces  for  every 
child,  but  when  was  this  affirmed  to  be  either  necessary  or  essential 
to  the  rearing  of  children  ? 

Human  pride,  and  not  God,  or  inconvenient  conditions  and  circum- 
stances, will  thus  be  seen  to  be  at  the  root  of  this  question.  Judged 
by  the  ability  of  a  day's  human  labor  to  purchase  stapie  human 
food  and  clothing,  this  decade  has  seen  the  easiest  conditions 
of  human  life  within  the  range  of  authentic  history,  and  the  world 
contains  to-day,  more  and  better  food  and  clothing,  and  other 
creature  comforts  per  capita  of  the  human  family,  than  ever  before. 
In  other  Avords,  food  and  clothes  have  multiplied  more  rapidly  than 
mouthsA 

Another  typical  case  appears  in  a  letter  which  is  of  too  confiden- 
tial a  character  to  make  copious  extracts.  I  quote :  "  I  am  engaged 
to  marry  ...  I  want  to  know  the  truth.  I  am  a  young  man,  and 
am  earning  $2.25  per  day.  Now  in  your  sermon  you  claimed  that 
it  was  every  man's  duty  to  marry  young,  and  to  raise  a  family  of 
children.  But  the  one  thing  that  impressed  me  most  and  fairly 
horrified  me  too,  and  made  me  feel  that  the  great  pleasure  of  a  nice 
home,  adorned  with  a  sweet  loving  wife  which  I  had  looked  forward 
to  with  so  much  pleasure  was  going  to  fade  away. 

Why?  Because  you  claimed  that  the  only  legitimate  way  to 
prevent  offspring  was  by  living  a  single  life.  I  perfectly  agree 
with  you  in  cases  of  abortion.  But  you  have  just  torn  my  happy 
plans  all  in  pieces.  I  had  what  I  considered  very  high  ideas  in 
regard  to  married  life,  but  one  of  which,  if  carried  out  is  a  sin  against 
God  from  the  standpoint  you  have  taken.  We  had  planned  so 
many  times  to  go  three  or  four  years  without  children,  and  during 
that  time  enjoy  married  life,  and  meanwhile  save  what  we  could. 
Now,  plainly,  we  should  like  to  have  about  two  children  ...  I  want 
to  hear  from  you  again,  for  I  want  to  know  the  truth." 

The  truth  is,  and  the  truth  must  be  told,  for  ignorance  is  plainly 
the  trouble  here,  coupled  with  the  lust  of  money,  that  there  is  no 
chapter  nor  verse  in  God's  revealed  law,  nor  in  the  laws  of  nature, 
which  specifies  the  number  of  children  any  couple  shall  or  shall  not 
have.  And  the  further  advice  must  be  frankly  given  to  this  young 
man,  who  appears  to  have  a  conscience,  and  a  tender  heart,  to  do  his 
duty  manfully,  and  leave  the  rest  with  God.  Duty  here  contains 
the  principles  not  only  of  marital  fidelity  and  responsibility,  but 
*Lukexii.  24,27,28. 

f« Is  Man  Too  Prolific  ?"     H.  S.  Pomeroy,  M.  D. 


THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE.  41 

also  temperance.  Intemperance  in  any  of  the  legitimate  passions  is 
lust.  Desire  for  riches  and  luxuries  as  a  higher  aim  than  paternity 
or  maternity  is  lust.  "  When  lust  hath  conceived,  it  bringeth  forth 
sin,  and  sin,  -when  it  is  finished,  bringeth  forth  death." 

It  does  not  seem  to  be  generally  known  that  in  order  that 
the  human  race  go  on  reproducing  itself,  certain  conditions  are 
indispensable.  If  every  woman  married,  and  every  woman  had  four 
children,  population  would  remain  just  stationary. 

If  every  marriageable  adult  man  and  woman,  in  a  given  community 
were  to  marry,  and  if  every  marriage  proved  fertile,  on  the  average, 
to  the  extent  of  four  children,  then  under  favorable  circumstances, 
that  community  would  just  keep  up  its  numbers,  neither  increasing 
nor  decreasing  from  generation  to  generation. 

If  less  than  all  the  adult  men  and  women  married,  or  if  the  mar- 
riages proved  fertile,  on  the  average,  to  a  less  degree  than  four 
children  apiece,  then  that  community  would  decrease  constantly. 

In  order  that  the  community  may  keep  up  to  its  normal  level, 
therefore,  either  all  adults  must  marry  and  produce  to  this  extent, 
or  else  fewer  marrying,  these  few  must  have  families  exceeding  on  the 
average  four  children,  in  exact  proportion  to  the  rate  of  abstention. 

If  every  man  and  every  woman  in  a  given  community  were  to 
marry ;  and  they  were  in  each  case  to  produce  two  children,  a  boy 
and  a  girl ;  and  assuming  that  these  children  were  in  every  case  to 
attain  maturity,  then  the  next  generation  would  exactly  reproduce 
the  last,  each  father  being  represented  by  his  son,  and  each  mother 
by  her  daughter.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact,  all  the  children  do  not 
attain  maturity.  On  the  contrary  nearly  half  of  them,  by  the 
statistics,  die  before  reaching  the  age  of  manhood  and  womanhood, 
in  some  conditions  and  countries  more  than  a  half. 

Koughly  speaking  then,  it  may  be  said  that  in  order  that  two 
children  may  attain  maturity,  and  be  capable  of  marriage,  even  under 
the  most  favorable  circumstances,  four  must  be  born. 

The  other  two  must  be  provided  to  cover  risks  of  infant,  or  adoles- 
cent mortality,  and  to  insure  against  infertility  or  incapacity  for 
marriage  in  later  life.  So  that  even  if  every  possible  person  married, 
and  if  every  married  pair  had  four  children,  we  should  only  just  keep 
up  the  number  of  our  population  from  one  generation  to  another. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  say  that  not  every  possible  person  does  marry. 
Therefore  it  is  clear  that  each  actual  marriage  is,  on  an  average, 
fertile  to  considerably  more  than  the  extent  of  four  children. 


-12  THE    CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE 

Mr.  Grant  Allen  has  made  this  clear,  in  some  "Plain  Words 
on  the  Woman  Question,"  in  the  Fortnightly  Review.  These  facts 
are  recognized  as  axioms  by  all  students  of  political  and  social 
science. 

Applying  them  to  New  England  and  America,  it  will  thus  be  seen 
that  if  the  native  horn  American  mothers  shirk  their  natural 
d mios,  they  in  so  far  impose  a  heavier  task  upon  the  Catholic 
and  foreign  population. 

Mr.  Grant  Allen  has  demonstrated  that  an  average  production  of 
six  children  to  a  family,  is  the  very  fewest  number  that  the  British 
Isles  can  do  with. 

Dr.  Pomeroy  has  also  claimed  with  reference  to  America,  that  in 
order  to  preserve  our  present  population,  four  births  to  each  couple 
are  necessary,  and  that  five  would  only  allow  for  a  moderate  increase, 

"HOLD  THE  FORT!"  FROM  CLERGYMEN. 

Minneapolis,  Minn.,  Nov.  10th,  1891. 
"  My  Dear  Brother  : 

Allow  me  to  express  my  hearty  appreciation  of  the  sermon  re- 
cently preached  by  you  on  the  ethics  of  marriage.  Many  voices 
will  doubtless  be  raised  in  censure  against  you,  but  I  desire  to  be 
among  those  who  will  say  '  God  bless  you/  for  your  noble  courage. 
You  wielded  a  sharp,  but  polished  shaft.  May  God  direct  its  glit- 
tering point  home  to  every  guilty  heart !  I  hope  your  good  people 
and  all  the  other  home-loving  people  of  the  land  will  hold  up  your 
hands  while  you  wage  this  warfare  against  a  crime  which  is  so 
prevalent  and  so  infernal.  My  endorsement  of  your  sentiments 
may  give  you  no  pleasure,  but  it  does  me  good  to  express  my 
thanks  to  you  for  the  good  service  you  have  rendered  the  cause 
of  Church  and  State.     Most  sincerely  yours, 

WILLIS   A.  HADLEY." 

Pastor  Lyndale  Congregational  Church,  Minneapolis,  Minn. 

Charlestown,  Mass.,  Nov.  10th,  1891. 
'•'  My  Dear  Brother : 

I  have  just  finished  reading  your  sermon.  I  want  in  a  brotherly 
way  to  commend  your  brave  utterance  and  thank  you  in  behalf  of 
humanity.  I  know  we  do  not  need  praise  for  doing  our  duty,  but  I 
also  know  that  sympathy  is  comforting,  especially  when  the  hornets 
are  thick  as  they  soon  will  be  about  your  head,  unless  you  have  a 
remarkably  pious  congregation.  May  the  Lord  bless  you  for  it, 
and  may  your  bow  abide  in  strength  for  many  years  to  come. 

Fraternally, 

G.  Iff.  SMILEY." 

Pastor  Monument  Square  M.  E.  Church,  Charlestown,  Mass. 


THE    CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE.  43 

New  Bedford,  Mass.,  Nov.  18th,  1891. 
"Dear  Brother : 

I  congratulate  you  upon  your  courage  and  ahility  to  deal  with  the 
greatest  modern  social  evil.  I  recently  treated  the  same  subject  in 
a  part  of  a  discourse  which  I  preached  to  my  people.  I  was  not 
able  then,  nor  am  1  at  any  time,  to  present  it  with  the  pointedness  and 
boldness  which  you  have  done  in  the  discourse  before  me.  I  wish  that 
you  might  have  it  printed  in  cheap  tract  form,  so  that  it  might  have 
a  wider  circulation  than  it  could  have  without  it.  I  think  the  sin  is 
more  general  everywhere,  even  besides  New  England,  than  one 
really  knows.  The  Lord  bless  you  in  your  crusade  against  the 
polite  crimes  of  the  '  best '   society.     Yours  very  fraternally, 

JAMES    MITCHELL." 

Pastor  First  Presbyterian  Church,  New  Bedford,  Mass. 

Newton  Highlands,  Mass.,  Nov.  10th,  1891. 
"  Dear  Brother  and  Comrade  : 

Will  you  allow  me  to  extend  to  you  the  right  hand  of  hearty  fellow- 
ship and  sympathetic  approval  regarding  your  sermon.  I  thanked 
God  when  for  the  third  time  I  re-read  your  fearless  utterances  of 
the  living  truth.  It  made  my  heart  rejoice,  for  the  sound  of  your 
trumpet  was  not  uncertain  ;  and  the  target  at  which  you  aimed  was 
not  hidden  behind  a  fog  of  meaningless  verbiage.  But  thick  and 
fast,  and  incisive  as  the  strokes  of  a  battle-axe,  your  words  of  stern 
uncompromising  denunciation  fell  full  upon  the  front  of  the  hid- 
eous leprosy  that  walks  and  lives  and  has  a  place  even  in  the  highest 
circles  of  American,  and  especially  New  England  social  life.  I 
thank  you  my  brother,  my  comrade,  for  the  inspiration  of  your 
courageous  example.  I  know  something  of  what  it  means  to  stand 
before  a  cultured,  refined  and  conservative  audience  and  proclaim 
the  bold,  uncompromising  and  unflinching  truths  of  God.  I  know 
something  of  the  thrill  that  runs  along  one's  veins  when  striking  at 
a  morality-insulated  conscience,  the  burning,  branding  words  of  the 
lr.'ing  God.  It  is  like  the  whiz  of  bullets  and  the  clashing  of  sa- 
bres on  the  battle  field.  The  naked  truth  is  like  a  naked  sword- 
blade  for  execution.  But  alas  how  many  pulpits  are  but  empty  or- 
namental scabbards  of  parade  day.  God  bless  your  words  and 
cheer  you  in  the  conflict !  Yours  truly, 

FRANK  BARTOX." 

Pastor  M.  E.  Church,  Newton  Highlands,  Mass. 

Boston  Highlands,  Nov.  18th,  1891. 
"  I  want  to  thank  you,  while  I  offer  devout  thanksgiving  to  God  for 
your  able,  timely,  and  as  I  believe  divinely  inspired  sermon  on  the 
marriage  state.  May  God  touch  your  lips  as  he  did  the  prophets  of 
old.  We  sadly  need  more  of  such  faithful  preaching  from  the 
heart.     Yours  for  victory  through  Christ, 

E.  D.  MALLORY." 

Pastor  Grove  Hall  Union  Church,  Boston  Highlands,  Mass. 

These  cheering  letters  coming  spontaneously  from  brethren  in  the 


44  THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE. 

ministry,  most  of  them  utter  strangers  to  me,  only  fortify  me  in 
believing  that  the  time  is  ripe  for  leading  a  crusade  against  the  most 
insidious  vice,  the  Crowning  Sin  of  the  Age.  Doubtless  many  of  the 
faithful  clergy  of  America  are  only  waiting  to  say  "  Amen  !  "  Ar.d 
I  shall  believe  that  the  foregoing  are  but  samples  of  the  heaving 
conscience  of  the  faithful  preachers  of  the  Word  throughout 
America.  If  the  clergy  are  the  best  authorities  on  the  theological 
side  of  this  question,  the  medical  profession  are  the  experts  on  the 
physiological  side.     I  turn  now  to  the 

TESTIMONY  OF  PHYSICIANS. 

And  first  I  quote  from  the  much  valued  letter  of  a  distinguished 
physician  of  Boston  who  has  made  a  life  study  of  "  The  Ethics  of 
Marriage,  '*  and  has  written  the  classical  work  on  that  subject,  be- 
sides another  very  readable  and  convincing  pamphlet  on  the  ques- 
ion  :  "  Is  Man  too  Prolific  ?  " 

Boston,  Nov.  9th,  1891. 
"  My  Dear  Sir  and  Brother  : 

I  have  read  with  great  interest  a  digest  of  your  sermon.  I  am 
called  a  crank  on  the  subject.  For  years  I  have  been  studying  and 
writing  upon  it.  Incidently  I  have  suffered  and  am  suffering  bitter 
persecution,  because  of  my  position.  It  is  a  comfort  to  me  to  know 
that  there  is  at  least  one  New  England  Protestant  pastor  who  has 
right  convictions  on  this  subject,  and  has  the  courage  of  his  convic- 
tions.   Made   Virtute!  Amicus  Meus! 

Your  sermon  will  probably  bring  you  a  good  deal  of  persecution, 
but  do  not  be  afraid !  '  One  with  God  is  a  majority  ! '  and  God  is 
surely  on  our  side.     Sincerely  yours, 

H.  STERLING   POMEROY,  M.  J)." 

With  Paul  I  can  say  "  afflictions  abide/'  in  consequence  of  my 
sermon,  "  but  none  of  these  things  move  me!"  A  prophet  of  God 
who  expects  popularity  is  on  the  road  to  Tarshish,  but  not  Nineveh  ! 

The  following  letter  is  from  Henry  Root,  M.  D.,  Surgeon  54th 
and  58th  N.  Y.  Vols. ;  Bvt.  Lieut.  Col.  U.  S.  Vols.;  Vice  President, 
Society  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. 

Whitehall,  N.  Y.,  Nov.  13th,  1891. 
"  Reverend  Sir : 

Please  permit  me  to  thank  you  for  the  reading  of  the  sermon  to 
yours  in  the  New  York  Press,  Nov.  10,  on  a  heinous  sin  that  is  not  con- 
fined to  New  England.  As  a  physician  I  can  testify  to  the  enormity 
of  the  evil.  The  insult  of  being  asked  to  assist  in  preventing  the 
further  growth  of  an  infant  in  committing  murder,  has  to  be  ignored  : 
but  the  crime  can  be  averted  many  times  by  ignoring  the  insult  and 
*  Funk  &  Wagnalls  Publishing  Co.,  N.  Y. 


THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF     THE    AGE.  45 

giving  Christian  advice.  As  you  speak  of  Romanists  as  better  than 
Protestants  in  the  matter,  I  would  say  that  I  do  not  find  it  so 
in  my  practice.  I  could  write  much  to  sustain  your  position,  but  I 
hope  you  will  not  need  it  from  me  or  others  remote  from  your  own 
city.  I  write  in  haste  lest  days  go  by  and  the  word  in  season  be 
lost.  I  should  be  glad  to  hear  more  of  your  good  work. 
Very  respectfully  yours, 

HENRY   ROOT,  M.  D." 

As  to  the  comparison  of  the  relative  guilt  of  Protestant  and 
Catholic  in  this  matter,  it  becomes  me  to  say  that  it  is  not  my  prov- 
ince here,  to  investigate  the  reasons  why  the  Catholic  families  have 
a  larger  number  of  children  relatively  than  Protestant.  It  is  the 
wide-reaching  consequences  of  the  undeniable  fact  to  which  I  have 
endeavored  to  attract  serious  attention.  As  to  the  malpractice  of 
Catholics,  I  call  Dr.  Root's  attention  to  the  words  of  Professor 
Thomas  Addis  Emmet,  M.  D.,  LL.l).,  ex-president  of  the  Ameri- 
can Gynecological  Society,  etc.,  etc.,  in  a  prefatory  note  to  the 
"  Ethics  of  Marriage,"  where  he  points  out  that  this  sin  is  never 
committed  by  Catholics  who  live  in  accordance  with  their  belief 
and  teachings. 

"  I  have  been  in  practice"  says  Dr.  Emmet,  "  over  thirty-six  years, 
and  for  twenty-six  years  it  has  been  devoted  entirely  to  the  treat- 
ment of  the  diseases  peculiar  to  women.  As  a  result  of  this 
experience  I  can  in  all  truth  state  the  fact,  that  these  sins  are  not 
committed  by  the  Jews  or  Catholics.  I  cannot  recall  a  single 
instance  of  either  practice,  when  the  individual  lived  up  to  her 
belief :  so  long  as  she  was  what  the  Catholics  term  'practical,'  in 
practice  they  were  pure.  Every  Jew  and  every  Catholic  is  taught 
the  duties  of  married  life.  Each  child  born  is  accepted  as  an  addi- 
tional evidence  of  God's  especial  favor.  The  Catholic  is  taught  to 
regard  marriage  as  one  of  the  sacraments,  and  the  slightest  deviation 
from  all  pertaining  to  such  a  belief  is  a  mortal  sin." 

The  Catholic  doctrine  is,  that  children  must  be  reared  according  to 
nature's  promptings,  and  that  it  is  wicked  under  all  circumstances 
to  prevent  the  advent  into  the  world  of  souls  intended  to  be  brought  by 
God  through  marriage  ;  and  doubtless  this  is  the  Protestant  doctrine 
too,  so  far  as  any  doctrine  is  taught  by  ministers  and  Christian  phy- 
sicians ;  as  it  is  also  the  doctrine  of  the  nation,  which  by  state  and 
United  States'  laws  prohibits  these  crimes  under  the  severest  penal, 
ties,  and  excludes  from  the  mails  advertisements  and  appliances 
designed  to  facilitate  their  commission.  The  trouble  is  not  with  the 
doctrines  of  any  sect,  but  with  the  practice  of  persons  who  are  thought- 
less, uninformed,  and  wrongly  instructed  in  private  ;  while  in  public 
unfortunately  the  subject  is  neglected,  and  the  sin  too  often  ignored. 


46  THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE. 

In  a  brief  work  recently  published,  "The  Supreme  Passions  of 
Man,"  Dr.  Paul  Paquin,  late  Professor  of  Comparative  Medicine 
in  the  Missouri  State  University  gives  the  results  of  a  series  of 
investigations  made  by  him  on  this  subject,  which  maintains,  upon 
extended  investigation,  the  assumptions  which  I  have  made  the  basis 
of  comparison  between  Catholics  and  Protestants  in  the  matter  of  the 
birth  rate.     He  says : 

"  Of  500  women  in  six  different  denominations,  married  not  less 
than  five,  nor  more  than  fifteen  years,  selected  indifferently  among 
the  well-to-do,  taking  care  not  to  include  anyone  who  had  lost  a 
single  child  even,  the  following  was  obtained.  Of  100  in  denomina- 
tion A,  (Protestant,)  18  are  childless;  of  100  in  denomination  B, 
(Protestant,)  16  are  childless ;  of  100  in  denomination  C,  (Protes- 
tant,) 9  are  childless  ;  of  100  in  denomination  D,  (Jew)  8  are  child- 
less ;  of  100  in  denomination  E,  (Roman  Catholic,)  3  are  childless  ; 
of  100  in  denomination  E,  (Greek  Church  in  Europe,)  2  are  child- 
less." These  investigations  were  made  through  church  channels, 
records,  family  history,  etc." 

In  a  letter  to  the  author,  J.  Earrar,  M.  D.,  of  28  King  St., 
Boston,   writes: 

"  Let  me  say  as  a  physician  of  over  thirty  years'  experience,  the 
worst  half  has  never  been  told  by  you  or  any  other  man.  It  is  a 
pity,  too,  that  the  people  are  not  ready  and  anxious  to  hear  the 
truth.  Still  those  guilty  of  what  the  late  Rev.  Dr.  John  Todd  of 
this  state,  called  '  Fashionable  Murder,'  expect  to  enter  the  gates  of 
Heaven,  without  repentance.  *  *  *  I  can  give  you  evidence  to 
cover  every  point  on  which  you  have  thus  far  spoken." 

HEREDITY. 

The  exact  science  of  our  times  ha»,  after  a  prolonged  and  tortu- 
ous search,  arrived  at  the  conclusion  of  the  divine  law  given  to 
Moses:  "/  the  Lord  thy  God  am  a  jealous  God,  visiting  the  iniquity  of 
the  fathers  upon  the  children." 

The  axiomatic  verity  of  this  dogmatic  statement  is  unquestioned 
when  applied  to  disease  and  the  predisposition  to  physical  weak- 
ness of  any  kind. 

None  the  less  real,  is  the  application  of  the  same  law  to  the 
mental  and  moral  inheritance  of  children.  Those  who  have  dili- 
gently observed  and  studied  this  question  assert  with  a  confidence 
which  is  appalling,  that  if  the  promise  is  to  parents  and  to  their 
children,  in  the  divine  gift  of  moral  and  mental  well-being,  it  is 
equally  true  that  the  curse  of  God  Almighty  for  violation  of  physi- 
cal and  moral  law,  is  perpetuated  to  the  third  and  fourth  generation. 


THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE.  47 

If  we  find  that  a  loving  and  obedient  regard  on  the  part  of 
parents  for  physical,  mental  and  moral  law,  inevitably  results  in 
a  progeny  possessing  physical  beauty,  proportionately  good  mental 
capacity,  and  high  moral  possibilities,  what  may  we  not  expect 
to  see  in  children,  when  the  reverse  is  deliberately  invited  by 
sinning  parents? 

What  must  the  next  generation  be,  if  they  are  the  descendants  of 
parents  who  speak  of  them  as  "  accidents,"  whose  mothers  looked 
forward  to  their  birth  with  sorrow,  and  who  regarded  that  sequence 
of  natural  and  divine  law  which  brought  them  into  being,  as  an  in- 
convenience, an  imposition? 

What  must  be  the  physical  characteristics  of  a  generation  of  chil- 
dren whose  unnatural  mothers  regarded  them  as  "  things,"  rather  than 
human  beings,  before  birth?  And  who  can  wonder  at  filial  impiety, 
crime,  and  murder,  in  a  child  whose  very  soul  has  been  steeped  in 
hatred  and  murder  by  the  mother,  who,  previous  to  his  birth  has  in 
every  way  hated  and  endeavored  to  circumvent  his  existence?  As 
surely  as  like  begets  like,  as  absolutely  certain  as  the  law  of  pre- 
natal heredity,  is  it  an  undeniable  fact,  acknowledged  by  the  medi- 
cal profession,  and  apparent  to  all  observers,  that  a  child  conceived 
in  such  iniquity  and  brought  forth  in  such  cruel  sin,  will  fall  below 
the  high  standard  of  mental  and  moral  qualities,  even  if  in  the 
paradox  of  nature  it  may  be  so  fortunate  as  to  develop  a  symmetri- 
cal and  robust  physique.  The  imbecile  asylums  of  America  contain 
many  unfortunates  who  might  well  serve  as  models  for  the  chisel  of 
the  sculptor,  or  the  brush  of  the  painter,  yet  whose  mental  and 
moral  natures  are  but  the  unerring  fruition  of  parental  effort  to 
prevent  their  being ;  and  of  that  state  of  mind  which,  instead  of 
regarding  offspring  with  love  and  solicitude,  is  filled  with  vexation, 
confusion  and  mortification,  in  view  of  the  false  tenets  of  a  polluted 
social  "  set,  "  which  regards  child-birth  as  "  bad  form !" 

And  shall  we  not  also,  in  this  way  explain  much  of  the  deformity, 
the  monstrosity,  which  in  the  physical,  as  in  the  mental  offspring,  is 
otherwise  unaccountable? 

Not  once  or  twice,  but  many  times  have  conversations  been  lieard 
in  drawing  rooms  in  this  civilized  and  Christian  land,  when  a 
woman  who  is  a  wife  in  the  eye  of  the  law,  and  a  mother  by  God's  or 
dinance,  has  introduced  her  young  child  to  another  woman  with  the 
remark,  aside,  "  This  is  my  little  disappointment."  The  righteous 
Nemesis  of  an  offended  God  and  offended  nature  loses  no  oppor- 


48  THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE. 

tunity  to  make  the  appellation  as  thorough  and  as  real  as  its  utmost 
import.  A  child  that  in  its  very  inception  and  birth  is  a  disappoint- 
ment, is  in  every  way  likely  to  be  a  disappointment.  And  may  not 
a  minister  of  Jesus  Christ  add  that  in  the  day  of  Judgment  the 
disappointment  of  such  a  parent  will  shrivel  into  a  keener  mortifi- 
cation before  the  sentence  of  eternal  condemnation:  "Inasmuch  as 
ye  did  so  to  one  of  these  my  little  brothers,  ye  did  so  to  me  ? "  * 

Many  a  man  and  woman  can  echo  a  sentence  from  a  letter 
received  by  me  from  Portland,  Oregon :  "  Let  your  good  work  go 
on.  Thousands  of  lives  will  be  saved,  and  thousands  of  persons 
will  live  to  unconsciously  thank  you  for  their  existence.  I  am 
thankful  that  my  mother  was  not  one  of  those  'red-handed  mur- 
derers,' of  whom  you  have  spoken.  Though  spared  nryself ,  how  could 
I  forgive  her,  if  I  felt  and  knew  that  she  had  destroyed  my  brothers 
and  sisters." 

And  what  must  be  the  diabolical  state  of  mind  of  those  victims 
of  this  unnatural  sin,  who  although  spared  by  the  overruling  prov- 
idence of  God  from  the  efforts  of  unnatural  parents  to  destroy 
them  before  birth,  are  yet  born  into  the  world  the  heirs  of  sin, 
and  malice  and  murder  ! 

Unless  the  consciences  of  parents  are  aroused  and  quickened,  the 
speedy  ruin  and  ultimate  extermination  not  only  of  whole  families 
but  whole  races  is  the  inevitable  consequence.  Perhaps  it  is  best  it 
should  be  so  !  Perhaps  after  all,  this  is  God's  method  of  sifting  the 
world  of  these  latter  day  examples  of  pre-Noachic  wickedness  and 
crime,  in  order  to  re-people  the  world  with  a  purer  race,  who  bearing 
more  and  more  upon  their  hearts  the  image  of  Him,  who  "  like  as 
a  father  pitieth  his  children,"  so  pities  them  that  fear  him  ;  are  de- 
voted in  heart  and  soul  to  the  interests  of  the  best  "heritage  of  the 
Lord,"  the  children.  For  "  even  so  it  is  not  the  will  of  your 
Father  which  is  in  heaven,  that  one  of  these  little  ones  should 
perish."     Matt,  xviii.  14. 

VIRTUE  ITS  OWN  REWARD. 

One  of  the  sophistries  of  the  age,  far  more  prevalent  than  the 
casual  observer  may  surmise,  is  the  wide-spread  impression  that 
large  families  deteriorate  the  average  ability  of  each  individual 
member.  It  is  boldly  argued  by  some  that  to  produce  the  most 
stalwart  and  perfect  children,  physically  and  mentally,  the  number 

*Matt    xxv.  40.     Syriac  Version. 


THE     CROWXIXG    SIN    OF    THE    AGE.  49 

in  each  family  must  be  artificially  restricted.  There  are  people  who 
think  one,  or,  at  most,  two  children  very  well,  but  they  make  every 
effort  to  see  there  shall  be  no  more.  But  a  family  which  is  too 
small  is  a  vastly  greater  calamity  than  one  that  is  too  large.  Often 
an  only  child  gives  more  trouble  than  the  whole  of  a  large  family ; 
and  it  certainly  never  as  much  joy.  Dr.  Smiles  tells  us  that  a  lady, 
who  with  her  husband,  had  inspected  most  of  the  lunatic  asylums 
of  England  and  the  Continent,  found  the  most  numerous  class 
among  the  patients  was  almost  always  those  who  had  been  "  the  only 
child,"  and  whose  will  had  therefore  rarely  been  thwarted  or  disci- 
plined in  early  life. 

A  very  superficial  examination  of  the  families  from  which  the 
great  historic  names,  the  conquerors,  the  poets,  the  statesmen,  the 
geniuses  of  the  world  have  sprung,  will  show  that  they  have  been 
large,  often  very  large  families.  Out  of  divine  love,  "  God  gave  to 
Heman  fourteen  sons  and  three  daughters.  All  these  were  under 
the  hands  of  their  father  for  song  in  the  house  of  the  Lord,  with 
cymbals,  psalteries,  and  harps  for  the  service  of  the  house  of  God." 
1  Chron.  xxv.  5,  6.  What  a  family  choir  these  God-given  children 
formed !  and  they  were  spoken  of  by  divine  inspiration  as  "  cunning  " 
and  "  instructed."  Surely  a  home  so  filled  with  music  must  have  been 
a  place  of  harmony  and  love." 

Before  me,  as  I  write  these  words,  lies  the  picture  of  a  model  and 
gifted  American  family,  to  listen  to  whose  music  more  than  a  mil- 
lion people  have  paid  admittance  to  their  entertainments,  who  are 
known  throughout  America,  and  who  enjoy  the  friendship  of  some 
of  the  most  distinguished  Americans  in  the  ranks  of  literature  and 
art. 

Including  the  father  and  mother  they  number  fourteen.  "With- 
out one  exception,  they  possess  positive  merit.  For  years  they  have 
'traveled  all  over  America,  delighting  audiences  everywhere  with 
their  remarkable  talents  as  musical  artists. 

They  excel  Heman  of  scripture  fame,  for  while  he  trained  up  his 
fourteen  sons  and  three  daughters  to  sing  and  play  under  his  hand 
in  the  house  of  the  Lord,  no  mention  is  made  of  the  mother.  In 
this  family,  however,  the  mother  stands  surrounded  by  her  children, 
a  queen,  comely  and  gracious,  without  whose  presence  the  unity 
and  completeness  of  the  family  would  be  sadly  marred. 

Few  questions  are  more  frequently  asked  of  the  parents  than, 
"Are  those  who  appear  on  the  platform  really  all  your  children?" 


50  THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE. 

Until  recent  years  there  has  always  been  a  baby  too  young  to  ap- 
pear, so  the  facetious  answer  was,  "  No,  not  all,  since  we  have  one 
more  at  the  hotel  with  the  nurse." 

The  noble  mother  of  this  gifted  family  recently  rebuked  a  mother 
who  said,  "  I  hate  the  name  family  !  "  with  the  holier  utterance,  "  I 
love  it,  and  would  always  see  it  written  with  a  capital  F." 

I  append  with  great  pleasure  a  letter  from  Mr.  and  Mrs  James  B. 
McGibeny,  who  as  the  "Great  Musical  Family"  are  so  well 
known,  and  who  deserve  so  much  admiration,  and  so  much  atten- 
tion, as  a  typical  refutation  of  the  fallacy  that  small  families  develop 
greater  talent  than  appears  in  families  where  children  are  more 
numerous. 

New  Salem,  Mass.,  Nov.  17th,  1891. 

Eev.  B.  D.  Sinclair  ; 
Dear  Sir  and  Friend : — - 

In  to-night's  Boston  Record,  we  notice  the  fact  that  you  have 
openly  attacked  "  The  Crowning  Sin  of  the  Age."  We  hope  you  will 
publish  your  sermon  on  the  "Ethics  of  Marriage,  Infanticide,  and 
Child-murder "  and  bespeak  a  dozen  copies.  During  our  many 
years  travel  extending  to  almost  every  city  of  consequence  in  the 
United  States  and  Canada — much  comment  has  been  provoked  by 
our  large  family.  Many  physicians  have  talked  to  us  of  the  "  ter- 
rible condition  "of  affairs — lamenting  that  they  were  not  only  asked 
to  do  such  deeds  as  made  their  "  blood  run  cold,"  but  on  refusal  to 
lend  their  aid  to  nefarious  practices  were  accused  of  "  wanting  be- 
coming interest  in  their  patrons,"  and  losing  practice  thereby. 

One  eminent  physician  whose  name  would  carry  weight  anywhere 
declared  that  as  a  result  of  this  condition  of  affairs,  the  medical 
profession  Avas  being  filled  with  "  butchers,"  men  who  would  do  any- 
thing for  money,  and  that  men  with  intelligence,  heart  and  con- 
science were  being  fast  driven  to  the  wall  by  quacks  whose  main 
recommendation  was  their  utter  lack  of  moral  sense.  Many  minis- 
ters have  expressed  themselves  to  us  as  horrified  at  the  state  of  af- 
fairs, feeling  that  in  many  cases  they  were  obliged  to  administer  the 
sacrament  to  and  treat  as  brethren  and  sisters  in  the  Lord,  those 
whose  crimes  should  consign  them  to  imprisonment  here  and  to  perdi- 
tion hereafter.  And  yet  they  felt  the  subject  "  too  delicate  "  to  be 
broached  either  in  public  sermon,  or  private  admonition. 

So  many  "  confidences  "  have  been  thrust  upon  us,  by  those  who 
too  late,  have  deplored  their  own  terrible  responsibility  in  crimes 
that  have  left  them  childless,  or  alienated  from  each  other,  that  our 
hearts  have  been  terribly  saddened  and  sore,  and  we  hasten  to  bid 
you  Godspeed  in  your  courageous  attack  upon  the  sin  and  shame  of 
our  land  and  time.  Praying  that  you  may  be  sustained,  we  are 
Yours  very  truly, 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Jas.  B.  McGibeny. 


THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE.  51 

PRINTED  POISON. 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  in  eighteen  states  of  the  American 
Union  there  are  laws  upon  the  statute  books  which  make  criminal 
and  felonious  the  advertisement  of  either  physicians  or  other  means 
to  accomplish  the  infernal  wishes  of  unnatural  parents,  still  one  can 
scarcely  turn  to  the  advertising  columns  of  a  paper,  without  read- 
ing in  language  carefully  worded,  hut  equally  well  understood,  some 
new  and  approved  method  by  which  parents  may  destroy  the  in- 
cipient life  of  their  offspring.  And  this  also  in  many  papers  which 
are  regarded  as  respectable,  and  are  freely  received  into  every 
family,  and  in  some  cases  papers  which  bear  the  name  Christian, 
and  are  the  organs  of  churches  professing  the  name  of  Christ! 

It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  the  newspapers,  which  reflect  public 
sentiment  and  morals  much  more  than  they  create  them,  are  to  be 
over-scrupulous  in  matters  which  are  the  current  practice  of  their 
patrons ;  but  surely  the  public  conscience  needs  an  awakening  with 
respect  to  the  villainous  frauds  who  profane  the  noble  profession 
which  was  called  into  being  to  save  rather  than  to  destroy  life  ! 

In  the  course  of  the  recent  trial  in  the  State  of  New  York  of  a  Cats- 
kill  preacher,  for  manslaughter  in  the  first  degree  for  having  caused 
the  death  of  his  adopted  daughter  by  a  criminal  operation,  a  physi- 
cian named  Mackey,  when  called  to  the  witness  stand  confessed  that 
he  had  declared  that  "if  every  physician  who  did  this  illegal  kind  of 
work  were  arrested,  all  the  churches  would  have  to  be  turned  into 
jails;"  and  also  that  he  had  answered  the  coroner's  question,  "Have 
you  ever  done  any  of  it  ?."  "I  have "  he  replied ;  " but  you  can't 
prove  it ! " 

How  true  is  the  general  charge  made  by  this  physician  against  his 
profession,  we  have  no  accurate  means  of  knowing,  but  judging 
from  the  fact  that  the  number  of  births  in  what  are  called  the 
"  higher  classes  "  has  been  rapidly  diminishing  in  late  years,  it  cannot 
be  questioned  that  the  crime  of  pre-natal  murder  is  rapidly  and  ter- 
ribly increasing.  The  society  of  this  age  is  rapidly  approaching 
that  of  Roman  society,  of  which  Juvenal  so  plainly  wrote  : 

"She  who  shows  no long  gold  on  her  neck, 

Consults  before  the  Phalae,  and  the  pillars  of  the  dolphins, 

Whether  she  shall  marry  the  blanket-seller,  the  victualler  being  left. 
Yet  these  undergo  the  peril  of  child-birth  and  bear  all 

The  fatigues  of  a  nurse,  their  fortune  urging  them : 
Hut  hardly  any  lying-in-woman  lies  in  a  gilded  bed; 

So  much  do  the  arts,  so  much  the  medicines  of  such  a  one  prevail, 
Who  causes  barrenness,  and  conduces  to  kill  men  in  the  womb." 


52  THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE. 

My  attention  has  been  called  to  the  fact  that  the  great  daily  in 
Boston,  The  Globe,  which  first  printed  in  its  columns  the  report  of 
the  sermon  contained  in  these  pages,  reaching  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  readers,  sent  out  in  the  advertising  columns  of  the  same 
paper  the  printed  poison  which  solicits  the  guilty  to  practice  this 
diabolical  crime.* 

In  the  classified  columns  of  the  Boston  Daily  Globe  of  Nov.  Oth, 
1891,  in  which  my  sermon  first  appeared,  are  the  astounding  proposi- 
tions of  the  numerous  "physicians"  of  Boston.  In  one  column  are 
twenty-one  doctor's  advertisements,  thirteen  of  them  telling  the 
public  in  plain  English  that  they  can  and  will  furnish  medicine 
or  means  to  "  women  in  trouble;"  medicine  which  "  will  never  fail ;" 
medicine  which  is  "  effective  and  painless." 

This  is  no  very  great  exception  to  the  mass  of  the  press  of  Amer- 
ica. Aside  from  the  startling  fact  that  thus  are  the  rising  gener- 
ation of  American  women  being  morally  poisoned  by  the  advertis- 
ing columns  of  the  press  of  the  country,  is  the  more  astounding 
revelation  that  physicians  are  by  no  means  few,  and  the  number  is 
constantly  increasing,  who  are  willing  in  all  classes  of  society  to  be- 
come the  hired  assassins  of  those  who  would  destroy  unborn  life, 
and  who  often  do  not  scruple  to  use  means  which  not  only  ends  in 
murder,  but  suicide  !  Is  there  no  Anthony  Comstock  in  Christian 
America  who  will  lead  a  new  crusade  among  physicians,  which  will 
relegate  to  the  obscurity  of  prison  walls  these  moral  vampires  who 
trade  upon  a  noble  profession,  and  debase,  ruin  and  kill  two  of  the 
holiest  attributes  of  humanity,  maternity  and  paternity? 

The  home,  the  great  and  sacred  inheritance  of  America  from  the 
Teutonic  races,  the  foundation  of  all  that  is  dear  to  a  virtuous  state 
and  a  happy  people  is  surely  worthy  of  all  the  effort  and  all  the 
conflict  which  loyalty  to  these  high  interests  demand  from  men. 

THE  SERMON  A  BLESSING. 

One  of  the  critics  had  this  to  say  of  the  sermon  contained  in  this 
book.  "The  sensational  sermon  delivered  by  a  preacher  of  the 
gospel  in  Newburyport,  a  few  weeks  ago  has  attained  the  object  of 
extensive  circulation.     We  fail  to  see  how  any  good  can  come  out 

*  The  paradoxes  of  criminality  would  afford  an  interesting  study.  A  physician 
informed  me  that  a  woman  who  heard  a  sermon  upon  this  subject,  went  immediately 
home  from  church  and  performed  an  abortion  on  herself,  with  nearly  fatal  results, 
being  only  saved  from  death  by  the  most  assiduous  attention  from  the  physician! 
He  further  informed  me  that  she  remarked  that  she  "  would  see  whether  a  clergy- 
man should  interfere  with  her  liberty  in  such  a  matter!  " 


THE    CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE.  58 

of  such  an  outburst,  and  the  facts  of  the  case  are  not  such  that  any 
man  in  the  preacher's  position  can  know.  It  \A  a  mistake  to  believe 
that  a  sensational  attack  upon  the  public  morals  effects  anything. 
It  repels  the  honest,  is  looked  upon  as  a  sensation  by  the  indifferent, 
and  does  not  injure  the  guilty." 

As  if  by  a  special  interposition  of  Providence,  the  following  letter 
from  a  sweet  Christian  woman,  living  in  a  town  in  Massachusetts, 
came  to  me  about  the  same  time  this  criticism  was  made. 

No  verbose  rhetoric,  or  lengthened  argument  can  add  one  whit  to 
the  cogent  force  of  the  facts  therein  contained,  as  a  definite  reply 
to  the  assumptions  of  the  critic  that  the  sermon  has  done  and  can 
do  no  good.  The  facts  upon  which  the  sermon  is  based  and  against 
which  it  is  directed,  are  so  patent,  and  so  universal  that  it  requires 
mental  or  moral  obliquity  not  to  have  knowledge  of  them.  Neither 
is  this  knowledge  confined  to  the  learned  professions.  The  cry 
comes  from  almost  every  hamlet  and  village  in  America,  and  scores 
of  letters  have  poured  in  upon  me  to  prove  that  the  vice  is  not  only 
widespread,  but  increasingly  so,  extending  to  the  uttermost  geo- 
graphical as  well  as  social  limits. 
"Rev.  B.  I).  Sinclair  — 

I  want  to  thank  you  for  your  sermon  of  last  Sunday,  for  the  good 
it  has  done  one  woman.  I  have  a  tiny,  little,  blue-eyed,  pure  woman 
for  a  friend,  who  the  evening  before  her  marriage  was  called  upon 
.by  a  deacon's  wife,  to  give  her  a  little  advice  xxn  the  marriage  rela- 
tion, somewhat  after  the  manner  of  women  you  spoke  of  in  your 
sermon.  She  has  been  most  tenderly  blessed  since  marriage  with 
six  dear  little  children.  But  with  each  one  has  come  the  terribly 
sarcastic  remarks  from  her  husband's  family,  who  try  to  convince 
the  father  that  the  mother  of  his  children  is  'beastly/  'dragging 
him  down/  The  husband  had  really  seemed  to  be  getting  ashamed 
of  her  until  she  was  nearly  heart-broken,  but  could  not  consent  to 
comply  with  his  mother's  request  that  she  commit  abortion. 

I  took  over  the  paper  containing  extracts  from  your  sermon,  and 
it  showed  the  husband  a  few  facts  in  a  new  light  to  him,  and  the 
wife  is  a  happy  little  woman  again. 

To  me  who  during  seven  years  of  married  life  has  never  had  a 
living  child,  the  six  little  baby  faces  are  glimpses  of  heaven,  and 
soften  many  a  weary  hour  when  my  heart  mourning  for  children 
seems  nearly  bursting.  I  hope  that  when  your  life's  journey  may 
be  ended  your  entrance  into  heaven  may  be  heralded  by  the  thou- 
sands of  little  innocents  in  whose  behalf  you  so  fearlessly  spoke  last 
Sunday.  May  God  bless  you  for  your  heaven  sent  words,  for  did 
not  Jesus  himself  teach  us  the  most  tender  lessons  of  little  children  ? 
Very  truly, 

A  Lover  of  Children-." 


54  THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE. 

The  above  is  by  no  means  an  isolated  or  exceptional  case,  even  of 
the  many  instances  which,  unsolicited  or  unsought,  have  come  to 
me  through  letters,  since  the  publication  of  my  sermon.  The  sin- 
ful interference  of  hypocritical  relatives,  in  homes  which  would 
otherwise  be  heavens  upon  earth,  cries  out  for  every  utterance  and 
influence  for  its  suppression.  A  case  authentically  reported  to  me 
is  as  follows.  After  the  clergyman  had  pronounced  a  happy  couple 
man  and  wife,  and  the  new  made  husband  had  brought  his  youth- 
ful and  innocent  bride  to  his  father's  home,  his  mother  crushed  the 
trembling  heart  of  the  new  made  wife  as  she  stood  upon  the  thresh- 
old of  her  new  home  with  words  worthy  of  a  Lucretia  Borgia. 
The  satanic  edict  was,  "  Now  mind  you !  there  are  to  be  no  children 
in  your  family."  May  God  direct  this  sermon  to  all  such  hearts 
with  the  convicting  truth,  that  such  an  utterance  is  a  sin  against 
God,  a  crime  against  humanity,  in  short  murder ! 


A  SUGGESTION. 

Erom  a  Eoman  Catholic  physician  of  Dover,  New  Hampshire: 
My  Dear  Sir : 

Having  read  your  sermon  as  abstracted  in  the  daily  press,  I  wish 
to  extend  to  you  my  sincere  congratulations  for  your  fearless  ex- 
posure of  the  crime  of  New  England.  Regarding  your  ideas  on 
the  sacred  state  of  matrimony,  your  views  and  mine  are  identical. 
In  regard  to  these  evils,  the  hasty  and  ill-fitting  marriages  are  one 
of  the  prime  reasons  for  the  greater  crime.  Do  you  not  think  that 
the  obligatory  publishing  of  the  bans  would  be  a  check  to  %  cer- 
tain extent  on  these  marriages'?  In  New  Hampshire,  a  runaway 
couple  can  be  married  in  a  very  few  minutes  with  very  little  trouble. 
Only  a  year  or  so  ago  a  young  couple  were  married  here  whose  ages 
were  seventeen  and  fifteen.  I  am  a  Roman  Catholic,  but  believe  as 
you  do  that  criminal  abortion  is  fast  wiping  out  the  original  race, 
whose  place  is  being  filled  by  the  foreigner.  I  believe  there  are  as 
many  more  births  each  year  in  this  city  of  foreign  parentage, 
than  of  native  parents.  I  believe  that  female  extravagance  deters 
many  a  pure  young  man  from  entering  into  the  holy  state  of  matri- 
mony. Hoping  I  have  not  trespassed  too  much  on  your  time  I  am, 
reverend  sir,  very  respectfully, 

M.  B.  SULLIVAN. 


THE  DECAY  OE  NEW  ENGLAND. 


The  decay  of  New  England,  the  abandonment  of  its  farms,  and 
the  replanting  of  its  territory  with  alien  races,  is  a  matter  of  cur- 
rent comment.  But  much  that  is  said  is  the  result  of  casual 
observation,  rather  than  careful  investigation  of  authentic  statistics 
and  undeniable  facts. 

To  some  minds  figures  have  such  potency  that  nothing  else  will 
take  their  place.     They  desire  to  know  the  exact  facts. 

The  demand  for  statistics  is  a  reasonable  one,  for  only  in  this 
way  can  we  reach  an  intelligent  diagnosis  of  the  case,  that  will 
enable  us  accurately  to  determine  what  is  the  real  situation  that 
confronts  us,  and  the  reason  for  the  alarm  which  the  writer  feels,  in 
common  with  all  who  are  advised  as  to  the  real  condition  of  things. 

While  the  writer  has  been  aroused  to  use  great  plainness  of  speech 
concerning  "The  Crowning  Sin  of  the  Age,"  more  by  reason  of 
its  blighting  presence  and  nefarious  and  wicked  quality,  wherever  it 
has  appeared,  he  is  not  blind  to  the  fact  that  "  statistics  "  fully  war- 
rant his  zeal  and  his  indignation. 

Investigation  has  only  deepened  his  convictions,  and  magnified  the 
gigantic  evil  which  he  has  attacked.  If  the  sin  condemned  is  a  terri- 
ble one  in  the  sight  of  God,  a  search  into  public  documents  and 
census  reports  only  discloses  the  fact  that  the  evil  is  one  of  awful 
magnitude  in  the  eye  of  the  statistician  and  the  patriot. 

In  the  history  of  nations  the  birth  rate  has  always  been  regarded 
as  a  question  of  the  utmost  importance. 

It  is  an  axiom  of  political  economy  that  the  birth  rate  invariably 
indicates  the  rise  and  fall  of  national  prosperity. 

Near  the  close  of  the  last  century,  Malthus,  after  making  a  careful 
survey  of  all  of  the  nations  of  the  earth,  selected  the  United  States, 
— and  virtually  New  England,  that  being  the  most  populous  part, — 
upon  which  to  base  his  theory  of  population. 

65 


56 


THE    CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE. 


Observing  that  the  inhabitants  of  these  states,  at  that  time 
doubled  in  twenty-five  years  by  natural  increase,  he  considered  that 
fact  afforded  most  favorable  indications  of  prosperity.  At  that  time 
the  birth  rate  was  high,  families  were  larger,  and  few  were  found 
without  children.  Forty  or  fifty  years  ago,  large  families,  numbering 
six,  eight,  ten  and  twelve  were  quite  common.  Now  they  are 
exceedingly  rare.  In  the  great  majority  of  American  families  in 
New  England  only  one  or  two  children  are  found,  and  in  very 
many  families  not  one.  I  have  made  a  careful  abstract  from  the 
vital  statistics  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts,  1882  to  1890 
a  period  of  eight  years,  which  I  append. 

BIKTHS. 


From  1862 
to  1890 

Both  Parents 
American. 

Both  Parents  1  Am.  Father.  1  For.  Father 
Foreign.       |  For.Mother.  |  Am.  Mother 

Unknown. 

Totals. 

174,632 

193,133 

42,801 

45.139 

8,162 

DEATHS. 


From  1882  to  1890. 

Nativity  American. 

Nativity  Foreign. 

Unknown. 

Totals. 

265,249 

86,345 

3,432 

By  adding  the  3,432  "unknown"  deaths  to  the  number  of  deaths 
of  foreign  nativity,  which  makes  89,777,  we  find  that  the  excess  of 
deaths  of  native  born  over  foreign  born  is  no  less  than  175,472! 

From  the  above  tables,  it  will  be  seen  that  there  were  born  to  the 
native  or  American  born,  during  the  eight  years  named,  174,032 
children,  and  that  the  deaths  of  native  Americans  during  the  same 
period  were  265,249.  In  other  words  the  deaths  of  native  Americans, 
exceeded  the  births  by  90,617. 

On  the  other  hand  during  the  same  eight  years  from  1882  to 
1890,  to  the  inhabitants  of  foreign  birth  there  were  born  241,184  chil- 
dren, while  the  deaths  of  foreign  born,  were  86,345 ;  the  births  exceed- 
ing the  deaths  by  154,839. 

In  making  this  computation,  the  births  of  children,  when  one 
parent  was  foreign,  were  added  in  one  grand  total,  and  one-half  of 
that  number  was  added  to  the  totals  of  both  American  and  native 
births.     It  will  thus  be  seen    that  Avhile    according  to  the  Mass. 


THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE.  57 

State  census  of  1885,  the  total  foreign  population  of  the  state  was 
526,867,  or  27.13  per  cent,  of  the  total  population,  the  foreign  popu- 
lation contributed  18,501  more  births  than  the  American  parents,  or 
9,250  1-2  more  than  half  the  births  occurring  in  the  state,  during  that 
period. 

Or  what  is  more  to  the  point,  the  foreign  population,  consisting  of 
only  of  a  fraction  over  one-fourth  the  total  population  of  Massachu- 
setts, gave  birth  to  much  over  one-half  the  children  born  in  the  state 
during  the  eight  years  from  1882  to  1890. 

It  has  been  argued  in  reply  to  these  startling  figures,  that  the 
death  rate  among  children  of  foreign  parentage  is  so  greatly  in 
excess  of  those  of  American  homes,  that  these  statistics  do  not 
mean  so  much  as  they  would  seem :  that  children  in  Catholic  and 
foreign  families  die  in  great  numbers,  while  children  of  American 
families  are  better  cared  for,  and  outstrip  the  more  numerous  chil- 
dren  of  foreign  born  parents  in  the  race  of  life. 

Believing,  from  a  mere  superficial  observation  of  the  question 
that  these  claims  were  not  true,  I  have  found  upon  investigation 
that  statistics  do  not  bear  those  out  who  assert  them. 

In  the  report  of  the  Massachusetts  Census  for  1885,*  I  find  that 
while  the  mothers  having  purely  native  parentage  "have  relatively 
a  slightly  larger  proportion  of  their  children  living,  than  the 
mothers  having  purely  foreign  parentage,"  yet  it  is  out  of  all  pro- 
portion to  the  great  excess  of  the  foreign  birth  rate.  And  it  is 
enormously  out  of  proportion  to  the  excess  of  foreign  births  over 
deaths.  In  the  same  place  it  is  stated  that  while  the  mothers  having 
purely  native  parentage  have  71.14  per  cent,  of  their  children  living, 
the  mothers  having  purely  foreign  parentage  have  67.15  percent,  of 
their  children  living,  or  a  difference  of  only  3.99  per  cent. 

This  surely  is  a  very  small  disparity  when  we  consider  the  wealth, 
the  culture,  the  intelligence,  and  in  many  cases  the  luxurious  homes 
of  native  parents,  and  on  the  other  hand  the  trials,  necessities,  the 
poverty,  the  ignorance,  and  in  many  cases  the  struggles  of  an  immi- 
grant population  of  foreigners.  The  Chief  of  the  Mass.  Bureau  of 
Statistics  very  wisely  and  correctly  remarks  upon  this  very  point, 
that  even  with  this  small  disparity  "  there  undoubtedly  are  limit- 
ations and  exceptions  in  special  cases." 

The  British  American  Citizen,  of  Boston,  in  its  issue  of  Apr.  5th, 
1890,  contained  the  following  : — 

♦Vol.  1,  part  2,  Analysis  p.  CXIV. 


58  THE    CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE. 

"A  Suggestive  Contrast.  Last  week  the  health  officers  inspected 
a  two-story  tenement  house  in  the  South  Cove,*  and  found  four 
families  with  six,  nine,  ten,  and  eleven  children  in  each,  respec- 
tively. 

"Wanted.  A  girl  for  general  housework — family  consists  of 
father,  mother,  and  daughter  of  fifteen  years.  Apply  at  No. — 
Commonwealth  Avenue." 

There  are  however,  certain  qualifying  facts  to  be  considered, 
which  are  thus  stated  by  H.  L.  Hastings : 

"  In  comparing  the  birth  rate  of  the  native  New  England  stock 
with  the  birth  rate  of  that  portion  of  the  population  which  are  of 
foreign  birth  or  blood,  it  must  not  be  forgotten,  that  during  the 
last  fifty  years  New  England  has  been  drawn  upon  to  people  three 
thousand  miles  of  western  territory ;  and  that  she  has  also  suffered 
from  the  depletion  caused  by  a  terrible  war;  since  which  she  has 
also  sent  forth  a  large  Southward  emigration.  This  Westward  and 
Southward  emigration  has  drained  New  England  of  the  most  vigor- 
ous, enterprising,  and  prolific  portion  of  her  population,  who  have 
gone  forth  to  influence  society  and  mold  the  destinies  of  other  por- 
tions of  the  republic,  leaving  behind  the  aged,  the  enfeebled,  and 
the  unmarriageable  portion  of  the  population.t 

On  the  contrary,  the  foreign  born  element  which  has  entered 
New  England,  is  to  a  great  extent  the  more  youthful,  vigorous,  en- 
terprising, marriageable  and  prolific  foreign  element,  which  by  its 
emigration  has  left  Ireland  as  badly  depleted  as  New  England  has 
been  by  Westward  emigration,  with  a  decreasing  population  and 
a  comparatively  low  marriage  rate  and  birth  rate  there.  Another 
qualifying  fact  should  also  be  noted.  The  foreign  element 
in  New  England  is  now  in  a  far  more  prosperous  condition  than 
ever  it  was  before,  and  this  prosperity  is  favorable  to  their  increase. 
They  have  come  out  of  poverty  and  squalor  into  plenty  and  pros- 
perity, and  they  have  made  this  change  without  undergoing  those 
hardships  of  pioneer  life  which  were  braved  by  the  original  New 
England  stock,  whose  descendants  are  also  still  doing  pioneering  in 
the  wild  regions  of  the  far  West. 

Further,  the  females  of  the  foreign  element  which  has  entered 
New  England  were  not  under  the  domination  of  the  pernicious 
fashions   which  have  so   largely  controlled  New  England  women, 

*The  "  South  Cove  is  a  section  containing  foreign  population. 
fFor  a  further  discussion  of  this  subject,  consult  "  Old  England  and  New  Eng- 
land" by  H.  L.  Hastings. 


THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE. 


59 


and  which,  by  the  compression  of  the  vital  organs,  have  utterly 
unfitted  many  New  England  women  for  the  sacred  duties  of  mother- 
hood ;  but  present  appearances  indicate  that  unless  there  is  some 
caution  given  or  reform  instituted,  in  a  few  years  the  descendants 
of  the  foreign  population  of  New  England  will  be  quite  as  fashion- 
able, as  stylish,  as  tightly  laced,  as  slender,  as  consumptive,  as  pal- 
lid, as  short-lived,  and  as  entirely  unfit  for  the  duties  of  motherhood, 
as  many  of  the  women  of  the  older  New  England  stock  have  been 
for  a  generation  past. 

But  these  facts  important  as  they  are,  do  not  invalidate  the 
general  conclusion  that  New  England's  decay  is  the  result  of  New 
England's  sin  in  the  perversion  of  the  institution  of  marriage." 

The  object  of  this  book  in  the  writer's  heart  has  been  to  hallow 
and  sanctify  the  marriage  relation  and  the  home.  These  two  ideas 
ought  to  be  sacred  in  every  human  heart.  The  "  small  families  "  of 
New  England  and  America,  and  the  childless  mothers  of  the  land, 
are  occasioned  by  a  profanation  or  depletion  of  married  life.  The 
statistics  of  the  Mass.  census  of  1885  are  equally  instructive  and 
enlightening  upon  this   point,  as  appears  from  the  following  table. 

COMPARATIVE  CONJUGAL  CONDITION. 

(The  figures  given  are  per  cent,  of  whole  number  of  each  class.) 


Foreign  Males. 

Foreign  Females. 

Single. 

37.4S  per  cent. 

30. 70  per  cent. 

Married. 

57.31  percent. 

49.45  per  cent. 

Native  Males. 

Native  Females. 

Single. 

63,85  per  cent. 

59.89  per  cent. 

Married. 

33.17  per  cent. 

31.85  per  cent. 

60  THE    CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE. 

The  percentage  above  enumerated  is  the  per  cent,  not  in  propor- 
tion to  the  total  number  of  married  or  single  in  the  state,  but  it  is  the 
per  cent  of  married  or  single  to  the  total  number  of  persons  in  each 
class.  For  example,  we  find  that  63.85  per  cent  of  all  the  native 
male  population  of  Mass.  is  unmarried,  while  only  37.48  per  cent 
of  the  total  foreign  male  population  is  unmarried. 

And  while  only  36.70  per  cent,  of  foreign  females  are  single,  we 
find  that  59.89  per  cent,  of  the  native  American  female  population 
of  the  state  are  unmarried.  Or,  stated  differently  :  two-thirds  of  the 
native  females  of  Massachusetts  are  unmarried,  as  against  one-third 
married ;  while  of  the  foreign  born  females  the  percentage  of  the 
married  is  much  larger,  being  13  per  cent,  more  than  foreign  single 
women. 

Sometimes  we  hear  it  stated, — though  the  statement  is  entirely 
misleading — that  the  celibacy  of  native  women  in  Massachusetts 
is  due  to  the  large  excess  of  76,373  women  over  the  men. 

Convincing  as  such  a  claim  might  be  at  first  sight,  it  loses  all  its 
force  when  we  find  that  while  this  is  partly  true,  there  are  at  the 
same  time  4, 012  more  single  American  males  in  Massachusetts  than 
single  American  females. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  statement  is  not  true.  There  are  not 
76,373  more  women  than  men,  but  76,373  more  females  than  males 
in  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts. 

The  people  who  say  76,373  more  "  women,"  picture  to  themselves 
the  vast  body  of  marriageable  girls,  massed  in  a  hollow  square  and 
looking  about  them  in  vain,  from  Cape  Cod  to  the  Hoosac  tunnel, 
for  non-existent  husbands  ! 

The  fact  really  is,  that  these  76,373  females,  include  infants  in 
arms,  lunatics,  sisters  of  charity,  unfortunates  and  ladies  of  eighty. 
A  large  part  of  the  excess  is  due  to  the  greater  longevity  of  women, 
and  the  number  comprises  the  great  mass  of  widows,  who  have  once 
in  their  lives  possessed  husbands  of  their  own,  and  have  outlived 
them ;  partly  because  they  are  as  a  rule,  younger,  partly  because  of 
their  superior  constitutions,  and  partly  because  men  have  perished 
through  war  or  exposure,  or  have  destroyed  themselves  through  indul- 
gence in  vice,  stimulants,  and  narcotics. 

Looking  at  these  figures  then  in  their  simplest  form,  the  popula- 
tion of  Mass.,  according  to  the  Census  of  1885,  consisted  of  932,884 
males  and  1,009,257  females.  We  find  that  the  actual  proportion  of 
the  sexes  is  100  males  to  108  females.     This  makes  about  eight 


THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE. 


61 


females  in  every  hundred,  including  babies,  widows,  insane  and  so 
forth,  who  have  not  a  complementary  male  for  them. 

But  this  does  not  much  more  than  cover  the  relative  number  of 
women  who  are  debarred  from  marriage,  or  who  from  prudential, 
sentimental,  or  other  motives,  would  not  submit  to  marriage  under 
any  circumstances. 

And  if  the  marriageable  men  and  women  only  are  reckoned  in  this 
calculation,  the  disproportion  sinks  to  an  insignificant  fraction. 

The  statistics  are  equally  surprising,  in  their  general  results,  when 
we  compare  these  last  figures  with  the  relative  number  of  males  and 
females,  married  and  single,  among  the  foreign  born.  We  thus  see 
that  there  is  an  excess  of  11,937  foreign  single  females  over  foreign 
single  males,  and  that  there  was  by  the  census  of  1885,  five  hundred 
and  ninety  more  married  men  than  married  women  among  the  for- 
eign born. 

These  statistics  utterly  overturn  the  theory  here  controverted.  I 
subjoin  the  following  instructive  table. 

CONJUGAL  CONDITION  OF  THE  POPULATION. 


Conj .   Con- 
dition. 

Males. 

Females. 

Excess  of  Females. 

Total. 

Native. 

Foreign. 

Native. 

Foreign. 

Native. 

Foreign. 

The  State. 

688,284 

244,600 

726,990 

282,267 

38,706 

37,607 

Single. 

439,443 

91,665 

435,436 

103,602 

—4,012 

11,937 

Married. 

228,276 

140,181 

231,538 

139,591 

3,262 

—590 

Widowed. 

19,573 

12,581 

58,361 

38,797 

38,788 

26.216 

Divorced. 

905 

132 

1,655 

264 

7.50 

132 

Unknown. 

82 

41 



13 

—82 

—28 

Perhaps  equally  astonishing,  to  some,  and  bearing  with  wonderful 
force  on  the  subject  under  discussion  is  the  fact  that  according  to 
the  Census    of  1885  of  the  2,956  divorced  people  in  the  State  of 


62  THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE. 

Mass.  2,560  are  native  born,  and  only  396  are  foreign  born.  How 
powerfully  do  these  facts  support  some  of  the  generalizations  on 
public  morals,  made  in  the  sermon  on  "  The  Crowning  Sin  of  the 
Age,"  and  justify  the  remark  quoted  from  Joseph  Cook  : 

"  Three  hundred  thousand  divorces  in  this  country  the  last  twenty 
years !  Then  you  say  there  isn't  any  need  of  revivals  and  outpour- 
ings of  the  Holy  Spirit.  If  our  nation  rushes  on  in  sin  as  it  is 
going  now  I  do  not  wonder  that  the  Adventist  says  the  world  is 
coming  to  an  end  shortly.  If  the  brakes  are  not  put  on,  and  there 
are  not  general  revivals  in  the  cities,  and  a  much  deeper  work  of 
grace  upon  the  hearts  of  God's  people,  and  they  turn  to  the  Lord, 
there  will  be  a  winding  up  of  all  things  here." 

Full  statistics  for  the  United  States  are  not  yet  attainable;  but  all 
evidence  and  investigation  indicate  that  these  figures  are  growing 
more  ominous,  every  yeax,  in  every  point  to  which  I  have  referred. 

THE  UNITED  STATES  CENSUS  BULLETIN  NO.  175, 

dated  April  8th,  1892,  strikingly  confirms  this  conclusion.  "With 
the  single  exception  of  Vermont,  there  has  been  a  very  material  in- 
crease since  1880  in  the  number  of  foreign  born  in  the  New  Eng- 
land States.  The  largest  percentage  of  increase  is  found  in  New 
Hampshire,  being  56.26  per  cent.  In  Massachusetts  there  has  been 
an  increase  in  foreign  born  since  1880  of  213,646,  or  48.17  per  cent, 
as  against  an  increase  from  1870  to  1880  of  90,172,  or  25.52  per 
cent.  In  Rhode  Island  the  increase  in  foreign  born  since  1880,  is 
32,312  or  43.67  per  cent,  as  against  an  increase  from  1870  to  1880 
of  33.57  per  cent. 

In  Connecticut  the  increase  in  foreign  born  since  1880  numbers 
53,516,  or  41.17  per  cent,  while  from  1870  to  1880  the  increase  was 
only  16,353,  or  14.39  percent.  In  Maine  there  has  been  anincrease 
in  foreign  born  since  1880  of  34.10. 

The  whole  number  of  foreign  born  persons  in  all  the  New  Eng- 
land States  in  1890  was  1,142,339,  while  the  whole  number  of  for- 
eign born  persons  in  1880  was  793,612.  There  has  been  an  increase 
in  foreign  born,  during  the  ten  years  in  New  England  of  348.727,  or 
43.94  per  cent,  as  against  an  increase  in  native  born  of  341,489,  or 
10.62  per  cent !  The  whole  number  of  native  born  inhabitants  in 
1890  being  3,558,406  as  against  3,216,917  in  1880. 

The  increase  in  native  born  from  1850  to  1890  has  been  1,136,539 
or  46.93  per  cent,  while  the  foreign  born  have  increased  during  the 
same  period  836,090  or  273.01  per  cent ! 


THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE. 


63 


Prior  to  1880  no  separate  classification  of  the  population,  was 
made  by  the  U.  S.  Census  as  to  native  and  foreign  born.  In  1880, 
however,  the  white  population  was  classified  as  native  white  and 
foreign  white,  while  in  1890  a  further  classification  has  been  made 
for  native  white  according  to  Parentage.  Under  this  classification 
native  parentage  includes  all  native  Avliite  persons  having  both  par- 
ents native  born,  or  one  parent  native  born,  and  one  parent  for 
whom  the  birthplace  was  returned  as  "  unknown;"  as  well  as  all 
cases  when  for  native  white  persons,  the  birthplace  of  both  parents 
was  reported  as  unknown. 

Under  foreign  parentage  are  included  all  native  white  persons 
having  one  or  both  parents  foreign  born,  the  fraction  less  than  one- 
hundred  per  cent  in  the  first  column  being  the  colored  population, 
which  are  left  out  of  reckoning. 

WHITE  POPULATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND  ACCORDING 
TO  PARENTAGE  1890. 


Total  White 

Native  Born  White 

Foreign  Born 
White 

Total 

|  NativeParents 

ForeignParetit* 

Total 

Per  Cent 

Per  Cent 

Per  Cent 

Per  Cent 

Per  Cent 

98.99 

74.79 

51.82 

24.20 

Maine           99.72 

87.82 

76.65 

11.17 

11.90 

N.  H.           99.82 

80.64 

67.36 

13.28 

19.18 

Vermont     99.70 

86.46 

67.76 

18.70 

13.24 

Mass.            98.95 

G9.76 

42.67 

27.09 

29.19 

Rhode          q?  qq 
Island          9T-JJ 

67.10 

39.81 

27.29 

30.69 

Conn.           98.2S 

73.74 

47.87 

25.87 

24.54 

It  will  be  interesting  and  surprising  thus  to  note  that  the  foreign 
white  in  New  England  in  1890  represent  24.20  per  cent  of  the  total 
population,  while  in  1880  they  were  but  19.73  per  cent.   In  Maine  the 


64  THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE 

foreign  white  have  increased  from  9.04  per  cent  in  1880  to  11.90  per 
cent  in  1890 ;  in  New  Hampshire  from  13.32  per  cent  to  19.18  per 
cent ;  in  Vermont  from  12.32  per  cent  to  13.24  per  cent ;  in  Mass- 
achusetts from  24.79  per  cent  to  29.19  per  cent ;  in  Rhode  Island 
from  26.70  per  cent  to  30.69  per  cent,  and  in  Connecticut  from  20.83 
per  cent  to  24.54  per  cent. 

The  Native  white  of  foreign  parents,  that  is,  one  or  both  parents 
foreign  horn,  in  1890  represent  in  all  New  England  22.97  per 
cent  of  the  total  population ;  this  element  being  very  nearly  equiva- 
lent to  the  foreign  white  element  just  considered.  The  highest  per- 
centages reported  are  27.29  per  cent  for  Rhode  Island,  27.09  per 
cent  for  Massachusetts,  and  25.87  per  cent  for  Connecticut.  In 
Vermont  18.70  per  cent,  in  New  Hampshire  13.28  per  cent,  and  in 
Maine  11.17  per  cent  of  the  total  population  are  native  white  of 
foreign  parents. 

In  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island  hardly  two-fifths  of  the  popula- 
tion are  of  purely  native  stock,  that  is,  native  white  of  native  paren- 
tage, the  exact  percentages  being  42.67  for  Massachusetts  and  39.81  for 
Rhode  Island,  while  not  quite  one-half  or  47.87  per  cent,  of  the  popula- 
tion of  Connecticut  are  so  constituted.  Two-thirds  of  the  population 
of  Vermont,  and  of  New  Hampshire,  or  67.76  and  67.36  per  cent, 
respectively,  are  purely  of  native  origin,  while  for  Maine  fully 
three-fourths  are  of  native  stock,  or  76.65  per  cent.  For  New  Eng- 
land as  a  whole,  the  native  white  of  native  parents  represent  only 
51.82   per  cent  of  the  total  population ! 

Equally  surprising  to  the  uninformed  on  this  vital  question,  is  an 
investigation  of  the  tables  of  the  U.  S.  Census  for  1890,  in  reference 
to  a  comparison  of  native  and  foreign  born  in  each  city  and  town  of 
Nevv  England. 

In  Maine,  the  highest  percentages  of  foreign  born  are  found  in 
Biddeford,  where  it  has  risen  in  1890  to  43.55  per  cent,  as  against 
35.65  per  cent  in  1880,  and  in  Lewiston,  where  the  foreign  born  have 
increased  from  35.05  in  1880  to  39.46  in  1890. 

In  New  Hampshire,  the  highest  percentage  of  foreign  born  is 
found  in  Manchester,  being  45.53  per  cent  as  compared  with  38.24  per 
cent  in  1880.  In  Nashua  the  percentage  of  foreign  born  has 
increased  from  26.61  in  1880  to  32.54  in  1890. 

In  Massachusetts,  of  the  47  cities  and  towns  considered,  18  show 
a  larger  percentage  of  foreign  born  than  is  reported  for  the  state  as 
a  whole.  The  highest  percentage  is  found  in  Eall  River,  where  more 
than  half  the  population  or  50.72  per  cent,  are  foreign  born.    This 


THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE.  65 

percentage  is  slightly  greater  than  was  returned  in  1880,  when  the  per- 
centage of  foreign  born  was  48.15.  In  Holyoke  47.89  per  cent  of  the 
population  in  1890  were  foreign  born,  this  being  a  slight  decrease  in 
the  percentage  in  1880,  or  49.81  per  cent.  The  percentage  of  foreign 
born  in  1890  in  Lawrence  was  45.95  as  against  44.10  per  cent  in 
1880 ;  in  Lowell  44.53  in  1890  as  against  38.76  in  1880 ;  in  Chicopee 
43.60  in  1890  as  against  39.93  in  1880 ;  in  Clinton  40.37  in  1890  as 
against  36.74  in  1880.  The  percentage  of  foreign  born  in  1890  is 
between  30  and  40  per  cent  of  the  population  in  Adams,  Boston, 
Brookline,  Cambridge,  Fitchburg,  Gloucester,  New  Bedford,  Quincy, 
Woburn,  and  Worcester.  In  Boston  the  percentage  of  foreign  born 
has  risen  from  31.64  in  1880  to  35.27  in  1890. 

The  highest  percentages  of  foreign  born  in  Rhode  Island  are  found 
in  Lincoln,  or  48.75  per  cent  in  1890,  as  against  47.65  per  cent  in 
1880 ;  in  Woonsocket,  or  46.49  per  cent  in  1890,  as  against  45.67  per 
cent  in  1880;  and  in  Cumberland,  or  43.96  percent  in  1890  as 
against  38.32  per  cent  in  1880.  The  percentage  of  foreign  born  in 
1890  in  Pawtucket  was  33.87,  in  Johnston  33.86,  and  in  Warwick 
36.45. 

Li  Connecticut,  38.09  per  cent  of  the  population  of  Manchester  in 
1890  was  foreign  born  as  against  31.99  per  cent  in  1880.  Other  large 
percentages  in  1890  are  36.30  for  Ansonia,  34.83  for  New  Britain, 
35.69  for  Veinon,  33.40  for  Waterbury,  31.74  for  Meriden,  and  30.41 
for  Willimantic.  The  foreign  born  of  Bridgeport  represent  29  per 
cent  of  its  population,  of  Hartford  27.16  per  cent,  and  of  New 
Haven  28.27  per  cent. 

From  this  brief  and  general  survey  it  may  be  safely  concluded 
that  it  is  not  a  pessimistic  prophecy  when  I  affirm  that  as  things  are 
going,  the  present  native  population  and  their  descendants  will  not 
rule  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  a  single  generation  hence. 

This  conclusion  is  inevitable  in  the  face  of  the  fact  that  two  or 
three  times  as  many  children  are  born  of  the  same  number  of  for- 
eign born  residents  as  natives.  Two  facts  appear  to  be  established 
beyond  all  controversy.  First  that  the  birth-rate  of  the  foreign 
population,  is  more  than  twice  as  large  as  the  strictly  American. 

Second:  That  in  the  country  districts  of  New  England  settled 
mainly  by  Americans,  the  death  rate  keeps  pace  with,  and  in  many 
cases  exceeds  the  birth-rate,  so  that  there  is  no  addition  to  the  pop- 
ulation by  natural  increase.  This  will  do  much  to  throw  light  on 
the  question  of  the  deserted  farms  of  New  England.     The  Board  of 


66 


THE    CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE. 


Health  of  New  Hampshire,  after  carefully  analyzing  the  births  and 
deaths  in  1880,  to  draw  the  line  between  the  foreign  and  the  Amer- 
ican, established  the  fact  that  the  deaths  among  the  Americans  ex- 
ceed the  births  by  800.  That  is,  New  Hampshire  lost  just  800  of 
her  native  population  in  1880  by  a  deficit  of  births. 

THE  MOTHERS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS. 

A  careful  examination  of  the  facts  in  the  Mass.  State  Census  of 
1885  exhibits  the  same  relative  comparison,  when  we  enquire  who 
the  mothers  of  the  children  are.  This  reveals  the  same  disparity 
which  we  saw  in  the  birth-rates,  and  in  the  conjugal  condition  of 
the  state's  population.     I  subjoin  the  following  table. 

MARRIED  WOMEN  AND  MOTHERS. 

Mass.  State  Census  1885.  Totals  with  percentages  of  each  class 
to  total  of  all  married  women  of  the  State. 


Total  Married 
Women. 

Alar.  Women 
without 
Children. 

Alar.  Women 
having 
Children. 

Number. 

470,206 

82.5G1 

387,645 

Native  Bom. 

291,354 

58,850 

232,704 

Foreign  Born. 

178,652 

23,711 

151,941 

PERCENTAGE. 

100.00 

100.00 

100.00 

Native  Born. 

62.01 

71.28 

60.03 

Foreign  Born. 

37.99 

2S.72 

39.97 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  while  71.28  per  cent  of  native  born 
women,  are  childless  from  whatever  cause,  only  28.72  per  cent  of 
foreign  born  women,  out  of  a  possible  one  hundred  per  cent  are 
childless,  and  that  while  about  60  per  cent  of  the  married  women 
of  the  native  population,  have  children,  forty  per  cent  of  the  mar- 
ried of  a  foreign  population,  which  is  only  one-fourth  the  size  of  the 


THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE. 


07 


other,  have  children.  Or  in  other  words  the  production  of  one- 
fourth  of  the  population  (foreign),  is  to  the  production  of  the  other 
(native  American)  three-fourths  as  is  2  to  3 ! 

The  table  of  percentages  of  children  living  to  children  not  living 
are  instructive,  and  I  give  them  a  place  here  for  the  benefit  of  any 
who  may  wish  to  prosecute  these  investigations  further. 

PERCENTAGES  OF  CHILDREN  LIVING. 


Percentages  of 

Nativity  of  Mothers. 

Children  Living. 

Children  not 
Living. 

Native  born  Mothers. 

71.50 

28.50 

Foreign  born  Mothers. 

66.34 

33.66 

All  Mothers. 

68.88 

31.12 

It  will  be  seen  by  these  figures  that  while  68.88  per  cent  of  the 
children  of  all  the  mothers  are  living,  and  31.12  per  cent  are  not 
living,  a  slight  difference  of  2.62  per  cent,  more  of  children  born  of 
native  mothers  are  living ;  and  a  slight  decrease  of  2.54  per  cent  is 
noticeable  of  the  number  of  children  of  foreign  born  mothers,  as 
compared  to  the  totality  of  children  of  all  mothers  living.  To  my 
own  mind,  the  difference  in  worldly  means  of  bread-winning,  wealth, 
luxury,  and  intelligence  in  the  homes  of  the  native  and  foreign  born 
more  than  accounts  for  this.  In  the  face  of  the  extravagant  claims 
made  that  the  children  of  foreign  born  people  die  in  enormous  pro- 
portion to  children  of  natives,  these  figures  are  increasingly  wonder, 
ful  and  corrective ! 

According  to  the  most  authentic  reports  the  birth  rate  of  the 
New  England  States  is  less  than  that  of  any  large  European  nation, 
except  France.  And  the  New  England  birth-rate  as  collected  in 
the  vital  statistics,  being  based  upon  both  the  foreign  and  American 
classes,  it  will  be  seen  that  when  the  former  is  eliminated  in  the 
computation,  the  birth-rate  of  the  native  Americans  in  New  England 
is  much  lower  than  that  of  infidel  France  even. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten,  and  it  must  be  said  to  the  honor  of  the 


68  THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE. 

foreign  population,  in  our  midst,  that  their  religious  teaching  and 
practice  has  almost  everything  to  do  with  the  above  figures.  What- 
ever may  be  said  to  diminish  the  force  of  it,  it  cannot  be  denied  that 
the  foreign  born  are  restrained  from  violating  the  laws  which  govern 
the  physical  system  and  the  reproduction  of  children,  by  their  reli- 
gious belief.  And  from  a  careful  inspection  of  public  documents,  I 
find  that  this  is  equally  true  of  the  foreign  Protestant,  as  of  the 
foreign  Catholic  families. 

SIZE  OF  FAMILIES. 

In  the  early  history  of  New  England,  as  has  been  stated,  the 
birth-rates  were  high,  families  were  large,  and  few  were  to  be  found 
without  children.  From  the  first  settlement  at  Plymouth  in  1G20, 
this  prosperous  condition  continued  without  much  change  for  two 
hundred  years.  Startlingly  opposite  however  is  the  condition  of 
things  to-day. 

By  the  Mass.  Census  of  1885,  it  is  shown  that  the  total  number 
of  families  in  the  state  of  Mass.  are  424,415,  and  that  the  aver- 
age size  for  all  of  the  normal  families  of  the  state,  excluding  board- 
ing-houses hotels,  schools,  inmates  and  charitable  homes,  was  4.45. 
This  indicates  an  average  of  2.45  children  to  a  family.  According 
to  the  very  highest  authority,  every  family  must  have  at  least  four 
children  to  maintain  the  present  population  of  the  world — a  fact 
which  should  forever  set  at  rest  the  Malthusian  scare-crow  !  And 
when  we  remember  that  this  average  is  based  upon  the  foreign  pop- 
ulation included  with  the  natives,  who  notoriously  have  large  fam- 
ilies, the  figures  are  much  more  impressive.  I  have  not  been  able 
to  secure  statistics  of  the  relative  sizes  of  native  and  foreign  born 
families,  but  the  difference  is  so  notorious,  that  the  native  families 
must  largely  be  childless,  beyond  our  most  pessimistic  view.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  we  find  that  in  1885  there  were  17,141,  families  so- 
called,  consisting  of  one  person !  There  were  70,398  families  con- 
sisting of  two  persons,  which  means  a  family  without  children. 
There  were  82,760  families  of  three  persons,  which  means  that  the 
parents  had  only  one  child,  perhaps  not  any.  And  this  class  was 
the  most  numerous  class  of  families  in  the  state,  with  a  population 
of  248,280. 

The  most  numerous  population  of  the  state  is  embraced  in  fami- 
lies numbering  from  four  to  six  persons.  They  number  179,444 
families,  with  a  total  population  of  865,107. 


THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE. 


69 


It  is  significant  and  perhaps  not  entirely  a  coincidence  that  the 
number  of  families  in  this  latter  division  is  but  792  more  than  the 
total  number  of  foreign  married  women  in  the  state  of  Massachu- 
setts, and  but  a  comparatively  smaller  number  of  population  than 
the  total  of  persons  of  foreign  parentage  to  wit  919,869  ! 

It  is  a  well  known  fact  that  the  large  families  are  of  the  foreign 
population,  and  in  the  absence  of  exact  statistics  on  this  particular 
point  the  above  is  suggestive  ! 

The  marriages  taking  place  in  the  state  tell  us  a  corroborating 
story.  I  have  carefully  compiled  the  record  of  marriages  taking 
place  in  the  state  of  Mass.  from  1880  to  1890  with  the  following  re- 
sults, which  will  be  seen  in  the  subjoined  table. 

MARRIAGES  PROM  1880  TO  1890. 

(Compiled  from  annual  public  documents  of  Mass.) 


Couples. 

Both  Native 
Born. 

Both  Foreign 
Born. 

American 
Groom. 

Foreign 
Groom. 

Unknown. 

Totals. 

104,802 

65,562 

21,925  j 

18.678 

67 

It  will  be  seen  that  there  were  21,925  couples  married  of  which 
the  groom  was  American,  and  18,678  in  which  the  groom  was  for- 
eign. By  adding  these  two  sums  together  we  have  as  a  result  40,- 
603  couples,  where  one  party  was  native  and  the  other  foreign. 
Half  of  this  sum  should  be  added  to  the  couples  of  which  both 
parties  were  native  born,  and  half  to  those  of  which  both  were  for- 
eign born.  This  gives  us  as  the  net  result,  by  adding  the  67  "un- 
known" to  the  foreign  list,  125,164  marriages  among  the  native 
population,  and  75,931  marriages  among  the  foreign.  Out  of  a  to- 
tality of  201,094  couples  married  in  Mass.  for  the  ten  years  ending 
in  1890,  62  per  cent  were  native,  and  37  per  cent  were  foreign.  Or, 
while  the  per  cent  of  foreign  population  to  total  population  is  27.13, 
the  per  cent  of  marriages  of  the  same  class  to  total  marriages  of  the 
state  is  38  per  cent. 

This  is  a  fact  which  speaks  volumes  as  to  the  estimation  of  the 
sanctity  of  marriage  and  the  home  among  the  foreign  population, 
and  a  fact  which  in  the  cold  logic  of  arithmetic  tells  with  convinc- 
ing power  the  reason  why  child  murder,  infanticide  and   feticide   is 


70  THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE. 

decimating  the  American  stock,  and  replacing  it  in  the  homes, 
the  state,  and  the  church  with  "  the  sons  of  the  stranger." 

It  seems  to  he  the  fact  that  our  fair  America,  notwithstanding 
her  favored  position,  with  such  ample  resources  to  feed  and  clothe 
her  children,  with  such  magnificent  institutions  of  learning  and  cul- 
ture to  educate  and  refine  them,  with  such  an  honored  and  glorious 
inheritance  of  religious  faith  and  life  to  save  their  souls,  has  entered 
the  lists  with  India  and  China  in  the  satanic  and  heathen  practice 
of  childlessness,  and  infanticide  and  feticide. 

The  open  door  of  the  ages  is  before  us  !  But  upon  this  crisis  in 
the  opportunity  of  America  to  civilize  and  Christianize  the  world, 
is  it  possible  that  Christian  America  has  gone  back  to  Lycurgus  for 
her  laws  of  the  family  and  the  children,  and  to  Plato  and  Aristotle 
for  her  ethics  of  infanticide  ? 

The  parallel  seems  nearly  complete,  between  the  effete  and 
heathen  culture  of  ancient  Greece  and  Rome,  and  the  acme  of 
modern  American  civilization.  Shall  the  shadow  go  still  further 
back  upon  the  dial  %  Shall  America  become  a  hissing  and  a  re- 
proach among  the  nations,  while  she  vies  with  infidel  France  and 
heathen  China  and  India  in  preventing  and  destroying  the  children 
which  is  her  right,  and  the  bright  hope  of  her  future,  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  American  civilization  which  at  Plymouth  Rock  betok- 
ened a  new  era  of  prosperity  not  for  herself  alone,  but  for  the 
world  1     God  forbid  ! 

In  the  course  of  a  conversation  with  Madame  Campan,  Napoleon 
Bonaparte  remarked :  "The  old  systems  of  instruction  seem  to  be 
worth  nothing ;  what  is  yet  wanting  that  the  people  should  be  prop- 
erly educated  ? " 

"Mothers!"  replied  Madame  Campan. 

What  does  America  need  to  renovate  and  repeople  her  homes,  and 
thus  reform  her  church  and  state,  and  make  her  future  as  morally 
heroic  and  pure  as  her  past  ?  I  would  cry  aloud  as  with  the  voice 
of  the  Archangel  and  the  trump  of  God— MOTHERS  ! 


THE  VOICE  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


Some  criticism  has  been  expended  upon  the  author  for  his  temer- 
ity in  attacking  a  giant  evil  of  the  time.  Had  he  confined  himself 
to  discussing  and  rebuking  the  sins  of  Pharaoh  and  Nebuchadnez- 
zar, of  the  Antediluvians,  the  Sodomites,  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees, 
or  the  slaughter  of  the  Innocents  by  Herod,  or  even  the  practices  of 
the  Mormons  of  Utah,  little  fault  would  have  been  found.  But  it 
requires  courage  to  assail  the  sins  of  to-day,  and  to  set  an  iron  heel 
upon  the  head  of  a  serpent  that  is  hissing  and  coiling  around  your 
feet ;  and  more  especially  to  point  to  the  individual  sinner,  and  say, 
"  Thou  art  the  man  ;"  since  all  sinners  are  not  like  David,  and  do  not 
repent  or  cry  for  mercy  when  rebuked  for  their  transgressions. 

But  however  the  crime  which  I  denounce  may  now  be  regarded, 
its  sinfulness  has  long  been  asserted  by  the  Church  of  Christ,  and  by 
all  whose  opinions  are  worthy  of  regard.  Four  hundred  years 
before  our  Saviour  was  born,  Hippocrates  of  Cos,  the  famed  physi- 
cian and  father  of  medical  science,  (b.  c.  460-357)  imposed  upon 
each  medical  disciple  a  solemn  oath,  which  contained  this  obliga- 
tion: "I  will  give  no  deadly  medicine  to  any  one  if  asked,  nor  sug- 
gest any  such  counsel,  and  in  like  manner  I  will  not  give  to  a  woman 
a  pessary  to  produce  abortion.  With  purity  and  with  holiness  I  will 
pass  my  life  and  practice  my  art." 

The  same  oath  is  now  administered,  to  physicians  graduated  in 
our  own  medical  schools.  Do  all  of  them  appreciate  the  solem- 
nity of  their  obligation? 

In  the  ancient  heathen  world  infanticide  was  no  crime.  The 
apostle  Paul  in  the  first  chapter  of  Romans  fitly  describes  them  as 
"without  natural  affection,  implaeable,  unmerciful :  who  knowing  the 
judgment  of  God,  that  they  which  commit  such  things  are  worthy  of 
death,  not  only  do  the  same,  but  have  pleasure  in  them  that  do  them." 

Infanticide  found  defenders  in  Plato,  (Repub.  V.  9),  and  Aristotle, 
Polit.  IV.  vii. :  16),  the  latter  saying  that  law  should  forbid  the 
nurturing  of  the  maimed,  and  that  abortion  should  be  resorted  to 
when  population  was  becoming  too  numerous.     In  Sparta  the  law 

(71) 


72  THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE. 

directed  that  the  new  born  child  should  be  carried  by  the  father 
to  the  elders  of  the  community,  who,  if  they  found  it  healthy  and 
symmetrical  sent  it  back  to  its  parents  to  be  educated — otherwise  it 
was  thrown  into  a  deep  cavern  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain  Tayge- 
tus.  Other  Grecian  republics  destroyed  the  lives  of  sickly  infants. 
Anciently  infanticide  was  practiced  without  fear  or  shame,  and  abor- 
tion was  a  familiar  theme  for  poets  and  satirists.  The  Jewish  nation, 
when  obedient  to  the  law  of  Moses,  escaped  this  terrible  blood- 
guiltiness,  and  the  Church  of  Christ,  from  the  beginning  denounced 
such  crimes. 

The  earliest  Manual  of  the  Christian  church,  long  lost  from  view, 
and  only  recently  discovered,  known  as  Didache,  or  "  The  Teaching 
of  the  Twelve  Apostles,"  which  was  written,  perhaps,  as  early  as  a. 
t>.  120,  and  certainly  not  later  than  a.  d.  160,  condemns  infanticide  and 
feticide  in  words  which  I  have  selected  for  a  motto  upon  the  title 
page :  "  Thou  shalt  not  slay  a  child  by  abortion,  nor  what  is  begot- 
ten shalt  thou  destroy." 

Hyppolytus,  the  Bishop  of  Portus,  who  was  martyred  about  A.  d. 
235,  in  his  Refutation  of  all  Heresies,  B.  IX.  C.  ii ;  vehemently 
denounced  Callistus,  Bishop  of  Rome,  for  tolerating  licentious  irreg- 
ularities, to  avoid  the  consequences  of  which,  women,  reputed  to  be 
believers,  began  to  resort  to  drugs  and  various  criminal  devices  to 
avoid  the  disgrace  which  was  liable  to  result  from  their  criminal 
behavior. 

From  the  earliest  ages  preachers,  martyrs  and  samts,~n6t"  only  in 
their  private  capacity  but  in  the  great  assemblies'  of  the  church, 
have  denounced  this  atrocious  and  unnatural  crime. 

Christianity  first  attained  imperial  patronage  under  Constantine, 
and  one  of  the  enactments  of  his  reign  declared  that  "The  killing 
of  a  child  by  its  father,  which  the  Pompeian  Law  left  unpunished, 
is  one  of  the  greatest  of  crimes  ;"  and  with  great  uniformity  the 
church,  in  its  public  assemblies  or  through  its  representative  leaders 
and  officials,  has  set  the  seal  of  condemnation  upon  this  sin. 

Nor  are  such  denunciations  confined  to  by-gone  ages.  The  writer 
in  uttering  his  words  of  warning  is  only  obeying  the  express  exhor- 
tation of  the  highest  authority  of  the  denomination  with  which  he 
is  connected,  as  contained  in  the  deliverance  against  infanticide, 
of  "  The  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United 
States  of  America"  held  in  New  York,  May,  1869,  which  was  as 
follows : 


THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE.  73 


DELIVERANCE  AGAINST  INFANTICIDE. 

"It  is  with  great  pain  we  are  constrained  to  admit  the  increasing 
prevalence  in  many  parts  of  our  country  of  unscriptural  views  of 
the  marriage  relation,  in  consequence  of  which  the  obligations  of 
that  relation  are  disregarded  by  many,  and  separations  of  husband 
and  wife  and  divorces  for  slight  and  unwarrantable  reasons  are  be- 
coming more  frequent  every  year.  Nor  can  we  shut  our  eyes  to  the 
fact  that  the  horrible  crime  of  infanticide,  especially  in  the  form  of 
destruction  by  parents  of  their  own  offspring  before  birth,  also  prevails 
to  an  alarming  extent.  The  evils  which  these  errors  and  crimes  have 
already  brought  upon  our  country,  and  the  worse  evils  which  they 
threaten  in  the  near  future,  make  it  imperative,  as  we  believe,  that 
the  whole  power  of  the  ministry  and  Church  of  Jesus  Christ,  should 
be  put  forth  in  maintenance  of  the  truth  and  of  virtue  in  regard  to 
these  things.  Many  causes  have  operated  to  produce  a  corruption 
of  the  public  morals  so  deplorable,  prominent  among  which  may  be 
mentioned  the  facility  with  which  divorces  may  be  obtained  in 
some  of  the  states,  the  constant  promulgation  of  false  ideas  of 
marriage  and  its  duties  by  means  of  books,  lectures,  etc.,  and  the 
distribution  through  the  mails  of  impure  publications.  But  an 
influence  not  less  powerful  than  any  of  these  is  the  growing  devo- 
tion to  fashion  and  luxury  of  this  age,  and  the  idea  which  practi- 
cally obtains  to  so  great  an  extent  that  pleasure,  instead  of  the 
glorv  of  God  and  the  enjoyment  of  his  favor,  is  the  great  object 
of  life. 

It  is,  therefore,  the  duty  of  the  Church  of  Christ  to  oppose  in 
every  practicable  way  these  and  all  other  corrupting  agencies  and 
tendencies,  and  we  especially  urge  upon  all  ministers  of  the  gospel  the 
duty  of  giving  instruction  to  the  people  of  their  respective  charges  as  to 
the  Scriptural  doctrine  concerning  the  marriage  relation. 

We  warn  them  against  joining  in  wedlock  any  who  may  have 
been  divorced  upon  other  than  Scriptural  grounds.  We  also  enjoin 
upon  church  sessions  the  exercise  of  due  discipline  in  the  cases  of 
those  members  who  may  be  guilt)'  of  violating  the  law  of  Christ  in 
this  particular. 

This  assembly  regards  the  destruction  by  parents  of  their  own 
offspring  before  birth  with  abhorrence,  as  a  crime  against  God  and 
against  nature  ;  and  as  the  frequency  of  such  murders  can  no  longer 
be  concealed,  we  hereby  warn  those  that  are  guilty  of  this  crime 
that,  except  they  repent,  they  cannot  inherit  eternal  life. 

We  also  exhort  those  who  have  been  called  to  preach  the  gospel, 
and  all  who  love  purity  end  the  truth,  and  who  would  avert  the  just 
judgments  of  Almighty  God  from  the  nation,  that  they  be  no  longer 
silent  or  tolerant  of  these  things,  but  that  they  endeavor  by  all 
proper  means  to  stay  the  floods  of  impurity  and  cruelty. 

We  call  upon  all  to  remember  that  marriage  is  honorable  not  only 


74  THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE. 

in  itself,  but  in  its  ends,  Therefore  all  who  seek  to  avoid  the  respon- 
sibilities and  cares  connected  with  the  bringing  up  of  children,  not 
only  deprive  themselves  of  one  of  the  greatest  blessings  of  life 
and  fly  in  the  face  of  God's  decrees,  but  do  violence  to  their  own 
natures,  and  will  be  found  out  in  their  sins  even  in  this  world." 

So  far  from  transcending  the  limits  of  his  obligation,  the  writer 
believes  that  it  is  the  duty  of  every  minister  who  holds  connection 
with  this  great  ecclesiastical  body  to  miite  in  this  solemn  protest  and 
warning  to  a  sinful  and  adulterous  generation. 

Nor  does  this  ecclesiastical  body  stand  alone  in  its  testimony' 
The  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  the  "  Pastoral  Letter  of  the  Tenth 
Provincial  Council  of  Baltimore,  Anno  1860,"  sent  forth  the  follow- 
ing utterance  concerning  this  subject. 

THE    MURDER    OE    THE     INNOCENTS. 

"  The  abiding  interest  we  feel  in  the  preservation  of  the  morals 
of  our  country,  constrains  us  to  raise  our  voice  against  the  daily 
increasing  practice  of  infanticide,  especially  before  birth.  The 
notoriety  which  this  monstrous  crime  has  obtained  of  late,  and  the 
hecatombs  of  infants  that  are  annually  sacrificed  to  Moloch,  to  grati- 
fy an  unlawful  passion,  are  a  sufficient  justification  for  our  alluding 
to  a  painful  and  delicate  subject,  which  should  'not  even  be 
named/  among  Christians. 

We  may  observe  that  the  crying  sin  of  infanticide  is  most  prev- 
alent in  those  localities  where  the  system  of  education  without 
religion  has  been  longest  established,  and  been  most  successfully 
carried  out.  This  inhuman  crime  might  be  compared  to  the 
murder  of  the  '  innocents/  except  that  the  criminals,  in  this  case, 
exceed  in  enormity  the  cruelty  of  Herod. 

If  it  is  a  sin  to  take  away  the  life  even  of  an  enemy ;  if  the  crime 
of  'shedding  innocent  blood/  cries  to  heaven  for  vengeance;  in 
what  language  can  we  characterize  the  double  guilt  of  those  whose 
souls  are  stained  with  the  innocent  blood  of  their  own  unborn, 
unregenerated  offspring'? 

The  murder  of  an  infant  before  its  birth,  is,  in  the  sight  of  God, 
and  of  his  Church,  as  great  a  crime,  as  could  be  the  killing  of  a 
child  after  birth,  with  this  aggravating  circumstance  in  the  former 
case,  that  the  unborn  child  dies  deprived  of  the  essential  grace  of 
baptism. 

No  mother  is  allowed  under  any  circumstances,  to  permit  the 
death  of  her  unborn  infant,  not  even  for  the  sake  of  preserving 
her  own  life,  because  the  end  never  justifies  the  means,  and  we 
must  not  do  evil  that  good  may  come  from  it. 

We  confidently  believe  that  you  beloved  children  in  Christ,  are 
strangers  to  this   unnatural  vice.     Our  words,  therefore,  are  the 


THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE.  75 

language  rather  of  warning  than  of  reproof.  Let  these  sins,  dearly 
beloved,  be  '  not  so  much  as  named  amongst  you,  as  it  becometh 
saints  *  #  #  for  know  ye  this,  that  no  one  who  doeth  such  things, 
hath  any  inheritance  in  the  kingdom  of  Christ  and  of  God.  Let 
no  man  deceive  you  with  vain  words,  for  because  of  these  tilings 
cometh  the  anger  of  God  upon  the  children  of  unbelief.  Be  ye  not 
therefore  partakers  with  them.  *  #  #  "Walk  ye  as  children  of  the 
light;  for  the  fruit  of  the  light  is  in  all  goodness  and  justice  and 
truth.  And  have  no  fellowship  with  the  unfruitful  works  of  dark- 
ness, but  rather  reprove  them.  *  *  #  See,  therefore,  how  you  walk, 
circumspectly,  not  as  unwise,  but  as  wise,  redeeming  the  time,  for 
the  days  are  evil.' " 

A  PASTORAL  LETTER. 

Addressed  to  the  diocese  of  "Western  New  York,  Jan.  80,  1869, 
by  the  Right  Reverend  Bishop  Arthur  Cleveland  Coxe,  contains 
the  following : 

"  I  have  heretofore  warned  my  flock  against  the  blood-guiltiness 
of  infanticide.  If  any  doubt  existed  heretofore  as  to  the  propriety 
of  my  warnings  on  the  subject,  they  must  now  disappear  before  the 
fact  that  the  world  itself  is  beginning  to  be  terrified  by  the  practi- 
cal results  of  the  sacrifices  to  Moloch  which  defile  our  land. 
There  are  scientific  and  statistical  documents  before  the  people 
which  fully  sustain  my  remonstrances. 

Again  I  warn  you  that  they  who  do  such  things  cannot  inherit 
eternal  life.  If  there  be  a  special  damnation  for  those  '  who  shed 
innocent  blood/  what  must  be  the  portion  of  those  who  have  no 
mercy  upon  their  own  flesh? 

Dearly  beloved,  '  save  yourselves  from  this  untoward  genera- 
tion !'" 

Nor  did  the  learned  and  Christian  Bishop  content  himself  with 
this  bare  remonstrance.  But  with  a  righteous  zeal  and  pastoral 
earnestness  so  characteristic  of  him,  he  published  a  book  devoted 
to  this  subject,  under  the  title  of  "  Moral  Reform, "  which  though 
now,  unhappily,  out  of  print,  was  a  terrible  arraignment  of  this  hein- 
ous vice,  and  did  much,  twenty  years  ago,  to  stem  the  tide  of  this 
iniquity. 


SMALL    FAMILIES. 


BY    H.    L.    HASTINGS. 


Those  who  have  witnessed  the  rapid  increase  of  families  of  ill- 
bred,  and  ill  cared  for  children,  have  very  naturally  queried  whether 
such  an  increase  of  population  was  not  of  doubtful  advantage  ;  and 
have  turned  with  satisfaction  to  contemplate  the  neat,  well-bred, 
and  well  trained  children  who  in  smaller  families  have  received 
more  assiduous  parental  care. 

"We  ought  not  however,  to  draw  hasty  conclusions  from  isolated 
instances  and  extreme  cases.  There  are  small  families  where 
children  are  ill-trained,  and  there  are  large  families  which  are  an 
honor  and  blessing  to  their  parents.  There  are  those  who 
claim  that  under  a  restricted  human  culture,  a  higher  type  of 
offspring  may  be  expected.  "When  the  children  are  fewer  they  may 
be  more  vigorous  and  intellectual,  and  so  the  human  stock  may  be 
improved.  There  is,  however,  another  view  of  this  subject.  It  is 
the  work  of  parents  to  bring  up  children,  but  it  is  also  the  work  of 
children  to  bring  up  parents ;  and  where  there  are  no  children,  parents 
are  likely  to  be  greatly  neglected,  and  greatly  lacking  in  very 
essential  elements  of  character.  Nor  do  the  solitary  children  of 
well-to-do  and  wealthy  families  give  evidence  of  marked  mental, 
moral,  or  physical  superiority  over  others.  A  wise  observer  advised 
a  man  in  selecting  a  wife  to  "  choose  one  out  of  a  bunch,"  arguing 
that  the  self-restraint,  self-denial,  patience,  experience,  and  mutual 
helpfulness  exercised  among  the  children  of  a  large  family,  would  pro- 
duce better  specimens  than  can  be  reasonably  expected  in  homes 
where  there  are  but  one  or  two  children,  who  are  worshiped,  indulged, 
pampered,  petted  and  spoiled,  imtil  they  become  selfish,  ill-tempered, 
and  sometimes  insane.  Nor  does  it  appear  that  lonely  children,  in 
fine  houses,  are  marked  by  greater  health,  vigor  or  longevity  than 
the  members  of  families  where  the  children  are  like  olive  branches 
around  the  table,  and  where  they  are  counted  as  an  heritage  of  the 
Lord.  (77) 

*Copyright.     H.  L.  Hastings,  1892. 


78  THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE. 

It  is  true  that  there  are  cares  and  burdens  incident  to  the  rearing 
of  children ;  but  the  toils  and  labors  connected  with  the  culture  and 
upbringing  of  a  family  of  children,  by  no  means  try  the  human  con- 
stitution as  do  the  exactions  of  society,  and  the  unhealthf  ul  methods 
of  eating,  drinking  and  dressing  which  are  too  prevalent  among 
fashionable  people ;  to  say  nothing  of  the  darker  deeds,  which, 
while  they  reduce  the  average  number  of  children,  also  largely  in- 
crease the  death-rate  among  the  mothers.  And  the  hectic  flush  on 
the  cheeks  of  cadaverish  and  consumptive  women,  whose  smile  is 
like  the  grin  of  a  skeleton,  and  whose  laughter  is  "  like  the  crack- 
ling of  thorns  under  a  pot,"  are  far  more  likely  to  be  found  among 
the  childless  followers  of  fashion  and  frivolity,  than  among  the 
happy  matrons  whose  rosy  children  nestle  in  their  bosoms  in  infancy, 
and  rise  up  to  call  them  blessed  in  their  later  years  of  life.  Ancient 
heathenism  murdered  helpless  infants,  and  rotted  down  beneath  the 
curse  of  vice  and  vileness  of  every  kind.  And  in  preventing  the 
existence  of  children,  and  destroying  the  weak  and  sickly,  it  is  possi- 
ble for  human  beings  to  put  away  from  themselves  rich  blessings 
which  God  would  bestow  upon  them.  Many  of  the  most  eminent  of 
men  have  been  in  their  infancy  so  feeble  that  they  were  hardly 
thought  "  worth  raising."  A  man  well  known  for  years  as  a  minister 
in  Chicago,  who  died  the  honored  president  of  a  college,  it  is  said 
used  to  remark  that  he  was  such  an  unpromising  child  that  in  a 
heathen  land  he  would  at  his  birth  have  stood  a  good  chance  to 
have  been  dropped  into  the  nearest  frog  pond  ! 

France,  where  for  so  long  the  "Word  of  God  has  been  neglected 
and  disused,  is  dwindling  under  the  power  of  its  own  sins  and  vices, 
and  her  population,  instead  of  increasing  like  other  nations,  is 
actually  diminishing  through  the  smallness  of  her  families.  Other 
races  and  nations  dwindle  from  the  same  cause.  A.  W.  Murray 
in  his  account  of  "Forty  Years'  Work  in  Polynesia  and  New  Guinea/' 
when  speaking  of  a  visit  to  Darnley  Island,  and  of  the  prevalence 
of  infanticide  there,  says,  "  The  rule  on  Darnley  Island  was  not  to 
rear  more  than  three  children."  Have  civilized  nations  adopted  this 
heathenish  rule?     If  so,  they  must  abide  the  consequences. 

One  of  the  relics  preserved  in  Pilgrim  Hall  in  Plymouth,  is  the 
Puller  cradle.  The  Pilgrim  fathers  brought  the  cradle  with  them, 
because  they  believed  in  the  cradle,  they  had  use  for  it;  and 
though  one  of  their  number  died  upon  the  passage,  yet  they 
mustered  with  full  ranks  at  Cape  Cod,  one  child  being  born   on  the 


THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF     THE    AGE.  79 

voyage,  ana  another  being  born  while  they  lay  at  anchor  in  the 
harbor  Are  their  children  following  their  examples?  Or  are  they 
content  to  be  degenerate  sons  of  noble  sires,  and  to  pass  into  history 
as  a  race  which  has  decayed  through  its  vices,  and  has  perished  in 
its  own  corruption. 

We  look  with  sadness  and  anxiety  upon  families  where  there  are 
only  one  or  two  children.  Sometimes  there  is  a  funeral  in  such  a 
house ;  and  when  the  little  coffin  is  carried  out,  there  is  left  behind  it 
a  loneliness  for  which  earth  has  no  cure ;  but  where  children  are 
more  numerous,  and  are  prized  and  loved  as  they  should  be,  the 
broken  ranks  can  be  closed  up,  and  there  is  sympathy  and  solace  in 
trial,  and  hope  of  re-union  by  and  by, 

"  Where  fears  of  parting  chill 
Never,  no  never." 

All  members  of  families  cannot  be  great,  or  prominent,  or  influ- 
ential, yet  the  chances  are  that  in  a  large  family  some  one  or  more 
will  be  likely  to  attain  eminence.  Some  of  the  most  noted  men  the 
world  has  known  have  come  out  of  large  families  ;  nor  does  there 
appear  to  be  evidence  to  show  that  the  children  of  smaller  families 
develop  greater  talent  then  members  of  families  whose  children  are 
more  numerous.  It  is  stated  that  Napoleon  Bonaparte  was  one  of  a 
family  of  thirteen  children,  Benjamin  Franklin  one  of  seventeen, 
John  Bright  one  of  eleven  children,  Charles  Dickens  one  of  eight 
children,  Gladstone  one  of  seven  children  or  more,  Dr.  "William 
Makepeace  Thackeray,  grandfather  of  the  noted  author,  was  one  of 
sixteen  children.  Edwin  Burnham,  one  of  the  most  eloquent  evange- 
lists of  the  age,  was  one  of  fourteen  children,  six  of  the  seven 
brothers  being  preachers  of  the  Gospel.  The  children  of  Lyman 
Beecher  numbered  thirteen,  nine  of  them  being  the  children  of  Rox- 
anna  Foote,  his  first  wife.  His  seven  sons  all  became  ministers  of 
the  Gospel ;  two  of  his  daughters  were  well  known  writers — one  of 
them  being  the  most  noted  female  writer  of  her  age,  Harriet 
Beecher  Stowe,  who  was  the  seventh  child,  Henry  Ward  Beecher 
being  the  eighth.  Daniel  Webster  was  one  of  five  children,  by  the 
second  wife  of  his  father. 

Of  the  eight  children  of  Peter  J.  Gulick,  missionary  to  the  Sand- 
wich Islands,  one  son  died  before  completing  his  theological  studies, 
and  six  sons  and  one  daughter  became  missionaries  in  Japan,  China, 
Spain  and  the  Sandwich  Islands.  T.  De  Witt  Talmage  was  the 
fourteenth  child  in  his  father's  family.     Charles  H.  Spurgeon  was 


80  THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE. 

the  eldest  of  a  family  of  seventeen  children,  and  his  father,  John 
Spurgeon,  was  the  youngest  of  eight  children.  John  Wesley,  the 
founder  of  Methodism,  was  the  fifteenth  child,  his  brother  Charles, 
the  author  of  more  English  poetry  than  was  ever  written  by  any 
other  man,  being  the  nineteenth  and  youngest  child  of  the  gifted 
Susanna  Wesley,  whose  ashes  sleep  in  Bunhill  field  in  London,  and 
who  was  herself  the  twenty-fifth  child  of  Dr.  Samuel  Annesley,  who 
was  twice  married,  and  whose  children  were  described  by  Dr.  Man- 
ton  as  "  two  dozen,  or   a  quarter  of  a  hundred." 

Who  can  measure  the  results  of  such  lives  as  these?  Who  can 
estimate  the  honor  which  God  puts  upon  any  married  pair  through 
whom  he  sends  to  the  world  a  blessing  like  that  bestowed  upon 
Abraham  in  the  promise,  "  In  thee  and  in  thy  seed  shall  all  the  na- 
tions of  the  earth  be  blessed?" 

In  one  of  the  mountain  towns  of  northern  Massachusetts,  on  a 
hillside  which  slopes  westward  toward  the  valley  of  the  Connecticut, 
on  the  5th  of  February,  1837,  the  wife  of  a  poor  working  man  gave 
birth  to  a  son,  the  sixth  child  in  what  finally  became  a  family  of 
nine.  The  half  century  which  has  since  elapsed  has  not  effaced 
from  the  mind  of  that  mother  the  recollection  of  the  ill-concealed 
disfavor  expressed  in  the  glances  of  the  relatives  who  called  to  look 
upon  the  little  stranger  who  had  crowded  his  way  into  a  family 
circle  which  seemed  to  them  already  quite  large  enough.  But  as 
that  venerable  matron,  after  four  score  years  of  active,  useful  life, 
looks  out  upon  the  beautiful  grounds  and  commodious  buildings  of 
Northfield  Seminary  and  Mount  Hermon  School,  where  several  hun- 
dreds of  young  men  and  young  women  are  acquiring  an  education 
such  as  she  could  never  give  to  her  children ;  and  as  she  receives  the 
grateful  homage  of  those  who,  year  after  year  cross  seas  and 
traverse  continents  to  be  present  at  the  great  assemblies  which 
gather  there  ;  and  as  she  hears  of  the  multitudes  of  sinners  led  to  re- 
pentance, and  thousands  and  millions  of  people,  instructed  impressed, 
and  inspired  by  words  of  truth  sent  forth  in  many  languages  to 
many  lands  ;  and  realizes  that  all  this  work,  wrought  by  the  hand  of 
God,  has  radiated  from  the  cradle  of  that  little  infant  who  received 
so  cold  a  welcome  from  her  friends  and  relatives,  Grandmother 
Betsey  Moody  is  confirmed  in  her  original  faith  that  her  sixth  child, 
Dwight  Lyman  Moody,  was,  after  all,  worth  raising  :  and  those  who 
know  her  other  children  and  her  children's  children,  are  quite  of  the 
opinion  that   the   world  is   none   the   worse  because  she  was  the 


THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE.  81 

mother   of  nine  children  instead  of  two  or  three,  or  even    less. 

These  instances,  and  others  that  might  be  cited,  indicate  that  the 
theories  of  some  race-culturists  may  need  revision,  and  that  restric- 
tion of  the  family  may  involve  the  rejection  of  blessings  which  are 
liberally  given  by  the  bounteous  hand  of  God. 

Reasoning  from  the  doctrine  of  chances  alone,  we  should  infer  the 
special  probability  that  some  one  member  o£  a  large  family  would 
exhibit  talent,  and  attain  to  eminence  and  excellence  of  character. 
And  if,  as  is  sometimes  intimated,  there  is  likely  to  be  "  one  fool  in 
a  family,"  the  parents  who  have  only  one  child  and  who  did  not 
desire  that  one,  are  quite  as  likely  to  "  draw  a  blank"  as  any  one 
else ;  while  in  a  larger  family,  if  it  be  properly  trained  and  guided, 
there  can  hardly  fail  of  being  some  children  who  will  gladden  the 
hearts,  and  do  honor  to  the  memory  of  their  parents. 

Let  those  who  think  they  best  serve  their  generation  by  leading 
about  a  little  woolly  puppy,  while  a  hired  nurse  attends  to  one  or 
two  puny,  sickly,  feeble-bodied  children,  consider  whether  their 
method  is  likely  to  produce  better  results  than  are  manifest  in  those 
great  households  out  of  which  come  the  grand  men  and  excellent 
women  who  shape  the  destinies  of  nations  by  their  lofty  thoughts 
and  noble  deeds,  who  bless  their  parents  by  the  fidelity  of  their 
maturer  years,  and  who  make  the  world  brighter  and  better  by  their 
dwelling  in  it. 

OUR    NEIGHBOR'S    PITY. 


That  day  our  little  one  lay  dead, 

And  we  were  sad  and  sore  at  heart, 
And  all  the  joy  of  life  seemed  fled, 

Our  neighbor  sought  to  ease  the  smart. 
Oh !  strange  sweet  power  of  sympathy  ! 

That  grief  should  find  assuagement  thus  ! 
Our  sorrow  seemed  the  less  to  be, 

The  more  we  thought,  she  pities  us  ! 
And  then  she  said,  how  blessed  Avas  she, 

Since  God  had  still  denied  her  prayer, 
Nor  set  a  baby  on  her  knee ; 

For  such  a  gift  meant  "  such  a  care  ! " 
Our  pain  was  stilled  by  sad  surprise  ; 

New  feelings  in  our  heart  did  stir, 
We  looked  into  our  neighbor's  eyes, 

And  pitied  her — and  pitied  her. 

— Daniel  Mclntyre  Henderson. 


WITHOUT  NATURAL  AFFECTION. 


Natural  affections  grow  in  clusters,  and  cannot  safely  be  dissoci- 
ated from  each  other.  They  do  not  thrive  alone.  A  bad  husband 
will  not  be  a  good  father ;  an  unkind  mother  will  not  be  a  tender 
wife ;  an  evil  minded  daughter  will  not  be  a  good  sister ;  nor  will 
a  rebellious  son  be  a  pattern  of  brotherly  affection.  When  one  of 
the  natural  affections  of  the  soul  is  uprooted,  it  tears  others  up  with 
it,  and  leaves  only  ruin  and  desolation  behind. 

The  prevalent  selfishness  of  the  age  specially  manifests  itself 
in  a  dislike  of  children,  a  hatred  of  offspring,  which  is  as  unnatural  as  it 
is  unrighteous.  The  first  command  which  God  ever  gave  to  mankind 
when  he  had  created  and  "blessed  them"  was,  "Be  fruitful,  and 
multiply  and  replenish  the  earth,  and  subdue  it."  Gen.  i.  28.  And 
the  same  blessing  and  command  were  given  to  Noah  when  he  left 
the  ark  and  stood  upon  the  earth  once  more.  Gen.  ix.  1.  The 
history  of  Enoch,  who  so  pleased  God  that  he  escaped  the  common 
doom  of  mortality,  is  told  in  a  sentence,  which  relates,  not  his  emo- 
tions, his  fears,  his  joys,  or  his  sorrows,  but  the  fact  that  "He 
walked  icith  God  three  hundred  years,  and  begat  sons  and  daughters." 
Gen.  v.  22. 

But  when  men  are  selfish  and  women  are  frivolous,  this  primal 
law  of  God  and  of  nature  is  disregarded.  And  when  by  a  long  course 
of  evil  and  fashionable  and  unhealthful  living  and  lacing  and 
dressing,  women  have  ruined  their  constitutions,  distorted  their 
bodies,  displaced  their  vital  organs,  and  thus  utterly  unfitted  them- 
selves for  the  performance  of  all  the  high  and  noble  duties  of  ma- 
ternity, then  the  way  is  opened  for  them  to  perpetrate  the  darkest 
and  most  diabolical  crimes,  not  only  against  their  own  offspring,  but 
against  their  own  physical  and  moral  natures.  And  the  stories  of 
heathen  cruelties  and  enormities  are  cast  in  the  shade  by  the  guilty 
practices  of  members  of  civilized,  and  polished,  yea,  and  professedly 
Christian  communities,  who,  in  these  "  last  days  "  have  "  a  form  of 

(82) 


THE     CROWNING     SIN    OF    THE    AGE.  83 

godliness  "  but  deny  "  the  power  thereof,"  and  who  seem  as  desti- 
tute of  "  natural  affection,"  as  were  the  heathen  eighteen  hundred 
years  ago.  2  Tim.  iii.  3.  Rom.  i.  31.  For  Mr.  Froude,  in  his  lif  e  of 
Lord  Beconsfield  quotes  him  as  saying  that  "infanticide  is  practised 
as  extensively  and  as  legally  in  England  as  on  the  banks  of  the 
Ganges." 

The  perversion  of  one  of  the  greatest  instincts  of  the  heart 
distorts  and  deranges  all  the  rest,  and  lead3  to  untold  woes. 
Without  true  marriage  there  can  be  no  true  family  life;  and 
without  offspring  and  family  life,  marriage  is  a  farce  and  a 
sham.  When  God  had  made  man,  "  yet  had  he  the  residue  of  the 
spirit ;  "  the  divine  vitality  was  unexhausted ;  the  creative  energies 
were  yet  abundant ;  and  he  could  have  made  a  dozen  or  a  hundred 
companions  for  man  had  he  so  pleased.  But  "  did  he  not  make 
one  ?  "  "And  wherefore  one  "  instead  of  many  ?  "  That  he  might  seek 
a  Godly  seed.  Therefore  take  heed  to  your  spirit,  and  let  none  deal 
treacherously  against  the  wife  of  his  youth,  for  the  Lord,  the  God 
of  Israel  saith  that  he  hateth  putting  away."     Malachi  ii.  15,  16. 

The  divine  purpose  in  making  one  woman,  as  the  companion,  com- 
plement, and  covenant  wife  of  the  one  man,  was  to  "  seek  a  godly 
seed,"  a  race  of  men  who  should  fear  and  serve  the  Most  High.  And 
such  a  race  must  not  only  be  begotten  and  born  in  the  fear  of  God> 
and  in  obedience  to  his  first  command,  but  also  trained  up  "  in  the 
nuture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord,"  and  amid  the  genial  influences 
of  a  Christian  home.  And  no  such  race  has  ever  been  reared  in  the 
zenanas  of  heathenism,  the  harems  of  Mohammedanism,  or  any- 
where else  where  God  is  not  acknowledged  and  obeyed.  To  accom- 
plish His  purpose  and  perpetuate  a  righteous  seed,  God  has 
ordained  marriage  as  an  abiding  bond,  to  be  assumed  with  the  most 
solemn  consideration,  and  observed  with  conscientious  fidelity. 
The  "  sons  of  the  sorceress,  the  seed  of  the  adulterer  and  the 
whore,"  "  children  of  transgression,  a  seed  of  falsehood  "(Isa.  lvii.  3, 
4),  the  offspring  of  unloved  and  unloving  parents,  whose  hearts  are 
filled  with  hatred  and  murder ;  inherit  the  same  propensities  and 
passions  by  which  their  parents  were  swayed.  Hence  such  children 
are  born  with  instincts  of  vileness  and  violence,  with  murder  in 
their  hearts,  and  a  contempt  for  the  sanctity  of  human  life  ingrained 
in  their  very  being.  A  mother  who  is  willing  to  murder  an  unborn 
infant,  might  reasonably  expect  her  offspring  who  survived  her 
malice  to  grow  up  with  murder  slumbering  in  their  own  souls. 


84  THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF     THE    AGE. 

It  has  been  stated  that  the  police  records  of  the  city  of  Paris  have 
shown  that  in  a  single  year  more  than  ten  thousand  new-born  infants 
have  been  fished  out  of  the  sewers  of  that  Sodomitish  city  at  the 
grating  where  they  empty  into  the  Seine.  Is  it  any  wonder  that 
such  mothers,  and  their  children  who  escape  their  murderous  hands, 
should  give  rein  to  the  basest  of  passions,  light  the  torch  of  the  in- 
cendiary among  the  costliest  palaces,  and  fill  the  streets  of  Paris 
with  periodic  scenes  of  blood  and  flame,  and  ruin  and  devastation  ? 

The  love  of  offspring  is  a  primal  instinct  of  the  animate  creation  ; 
and  the  higher  the  grade  of  existence  the  more  intense  and 
watchful  is  the  parental  instinct.  A  man  or  woman  who  lacks  this 
element  has  a  sadly  defective  or  a  grievously  perverted  nature. 
Rightly  regarded  children  are  bonds  of  love.  In  them  parents  have 
joint  interest  and  ownership,  and  they  are  the  pledges  and  fruits  of 
the  deepest  and  tenderest  affections.  Prom  such  loving  families  and 
homes  the  church  is  builded  and  the  world  is  blessed.  Prom  such 
Christian  homes  come  those  who  shall  bear  a  Saviour's  cross  and 
wear  the  conqueror's  crown.  The  "godly  seed"  that  the  Creator 
seeks,  are  found  here.  "Of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 
"Lo,  children  are  an  heritage  of  the  Lord,  and  the  fruit  of  the  womb  is 
his  reward."  "  As  arrows  in  the  hand  of  a  mighty  man,  so  are  the 
children  of  the  youth."  Trained  and  held  in  place,  they  may  aid  in 
the  accomplishment  of  the  grandest  purposes,  and  become  the 
arrows  of  the  Lord's  deliverance  for  his  people;  misdirected  and 
neglected,  they  may  be  scattered  as  "fire-brands,  arrows  and  death," 
to  perpetuate,  not  only  in  their  own  families  but  in  the  world  at 
large,  all  the  base  and  cruel  and  destructive  passions  in  which  they 
were  born  and  bred.  Thus  from  homes  destitute  of  natural  affec- 
tion, go  forth  the  murderers,  the  robbers,  the  incendiaries  that 
curse  the  world ;  while  from  homes  that  are  filled  with  love  and 
peace  and  power  divine,  come  the  Johns,  the  Timothys,  the  "VVesleys, 
the  Spurgeons,  the  men  of  God  whose  lives  are  blessed  and  are  a 
blessing  to  mankind. 

Such  are  the  weighty  issues  that  spring  from  marriage  and  from 
home.  The  cargo  is  priceless,  therefore  the  ship  must  be  strong. 
If  marriage  loses  its  sacredness  the  family  is  wrecked.  In  every 
separation  of  parents  children  lose  a  father  or  a  mother, —  a  loss 
that  cannot  be  repaired.  Hence  God  himself  has  laid  the  keel  of 
this  vessel  of  human  hope,  and  his  hand  has  joined  and  fastened 
and  bound  every  portion  of  its  enduring  fabric.     God  joins  together 


THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE.  85 

man  and  woman  in  wedlock  by  the  strongest  bands.  The  deepest 
sympathies  of  their  hearts ;  their  highest  mental  instincts ;  the 
strongest  attractions  of  their  persons,  and  the  most  solemn  enactments 
of  divine  law,  unite  to  strengthen  this  inviolable  bond ;  while  the 
most  solemn  penalties,  the  most  terrible  physical  diseases,  and  the 
most  fearful  judgments  of  the  Lord  who  is  the  avenger  (1  Thess.  iv 
6),  are  imposed  to  punish  the  violation  of  this  divine  law,  and  en- 
hance the  sanctity  of  the  marriage  tie. 

This  is  the  divine  order,  including  purity,  fidelity,  permanent  pro- 
vision for  the  care  of  offspring,  and  the  accomplishment  of  God's 
purposes  of  mercy  to  the  race.  Man's  disorder  involves  licentious 
indulgence,  exemption  from  parental  responsibilities,  youth  without 
care  and  age  without  solace ;  facility  of  divorce,  causeless  separa- 
tions, and  the  ruin  of  the  individual,  the  family,  the  home,  and  the 
world. 

It  is  written  of  the  Lord  that  "  He  setteth  the  solitary  in  families," 
and  the  home  life  is  quite  essential  to  the  fullest  and  best  develop- 
ment of  personal  character.  And  it  is  of  great  importance  that 
persons  entering  upon  family  relations  build  a  home  of  their  own, 
however  lowly  it  may  be.  The  reaching  after  style  and  show,  and 
longing  for  city  life  is  one  of  the  curses  of  the  age.  God  put  man 
upon  the  soil,  and  bade  him  to  earn  his  bread  in  the  sweat  of  his 
face  ;  but  men  look  for  easier  tasks ;  they  rush  to  the  cities  ;  they 
lose  their  individuality,  sink  into  mere  ciphers,  cogs  in  the  wheels 
of  a  great  and  merciless  machine,  and  finally  die  in  garrets  and  cel- 
lars, and  are  buried  in  the  Potter's  field.  The  Madras  Mail,  describ- 
ing an  interview  with  General  Booth,  reports  the  following  weighty 
words  from  his  lips  : — 

"  Yes,  respectability  is  the  curse  of  nearly  every  department  in 
the  world.  Everybody  appears  to  be  above  the  condition  of  life  for 
which  God  designed  him.  Dig  your  fruit  out  of  your  earth,  praise 
God,  and  live  happily  with  your  wife  and  children!  This  is  most 
favorable  to  health  and  happiness.  "What  do  you  find  everywhere 
instead  of  this  ?  There  is  a  rush  to  the  towns  everywhere.  Go  to 
Australia,  or  even  Africa,  and  the  cry  is  just  the  same.  Population 
is  aggregating  and  surging  in  the  cities,  and  all  sorts  of  miseries  are 
prevalent.  I  come  to  India  and  here  it  is  again.  It  is  all  education. 
Make  your  people  good,  and  show  them  how  to  earn  their  bread  on 
the  land,  and  then  if  you  have  anything  left  cultivate  your  intellect 
and  count  the  stars." 


86  THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF     THE    AGE. 

The  idea  of  marriage  without  a  home,  or  a  home  without  a  family, 
is  pernicious  and  fruitful  of  misery.  A  childless  life  in  a  hotel  or 
boarding  house,  relieved  of  all  those  cares  and  labors  and  sorrows 
which  develop  the  sympathies  and  strengthen  body  and  soul,  is 
often  followed  and  filled  up  by  folly,  fashion,  flirtation,  separation, 
and  divorce.  When  marriages  thus  contracted  for  purposes  of 
mere  selfish  indulgence,  have  accomplished  their  end,  or  have  disap- 
pointed the  expectations  formed,  what  should  hinder  their  dissolu- 
tion 1  Why  should  persons  remain  united  when  they  have  perverted 
their  own  natures,  and  subverted  to  the  basest  ends  the  union  which 
God  has  ordained  for  high  and  holy  purposes  ;  when  they  have  rooted 
out  of  their  hearts  the  tender  sympathies  and  choice  affections  which 
God  implanted  there  to  cheer  and  bless  and  brighten  all  life's  weary 
way  ?  Hence  they  separate  ;  all  is  easy ;  no  children  complicate 
the  case :  no  house  or  home  is  the  centre  of  their  dearest  affections 
and  tenderest  love ;  the  man  and  woman  have  only  to  pack  their  trunks 
and  one  goes  to  the  right  and  the  other  to  the  left,  to  waste  the 
remnant  of  their  blasted  lives,  and  die  neglected,  alone  and  forgotten, 
leaving  none  to  mourn  or  care  for  them,  or  to  perpetuate  their 
memory  on  the  earth  ;  lost,  blotted  out,  exterminated,  but  yet  destined 
to  give  an  account  at  the  last  day  before  the  judgment  throne,  for 
misimproved  privileges  and  useless  and  wasted  lives. 

It  is  a  mighty  privilege  to  be  but  a  link  in  the  great  chain  of  life 
which  is  held  at  the  beginning  by  the  Almighty  hand  of  God,  and 
lengthens  itself  to  the  last  generation  of  human  existence.  It  is  a 
mighty  privilege  to  be  made  the  channel  of  blessing  to  remote  gen- 
erations, and  to  have  an  eminent  and  useful  and  grateful  progeny, 
trace  back  their  lineage  from  age  to  age  with  filial  affection  and 
reverence. 

The  one  star  that  beamed  brightest  in  the  horizon  of  the  Israel- 
itish  woman  was  the  hope  that  possibly  she  might  be  the  mother  or 
ancestress  of  that  expected  Messiah  in  whom  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth  were  to  be  blessed.  And  there  are  children  to-day  whose  lives 
are  not  only  a  benediction  to  the  world  which  they  bless,  and  to  the 
offspring  which  they  rear,  but  they  are  also  a  perpetual  joy  and  honor 
to  the  mothers  who  gave  them  birth;  and  while  the  curse  upon  the 
disobedient  and  the  ungodly  only  extends  "  to  the  third  and  fourth 
generation,"  the  blessing  and  the  mercy  upon  the  godly,  extends  to 


THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE.  87 

"  thousands  of  generations  of  them  that  keep  the  commandments  of 
God  to  do  them."  To  put  away  all  these  benefits  and  blessings,  to 
thwart  the  purposes  of  the  divine  Creator,  to  disobey  the  first  com- 
mand of  God  ever  given  to  man,  to  quench  the  spark  of  life  which 
God  has  lent  to  us  in  the  darkness  of  the  grave,  and  to  cut  off  all 
hope  of  blessing  and  benefit  which  may  come  through  children  and 
children's  children,  is  to  assume  a  fearful  responsibility ;  and  to 
make  this  a  mere  matter  of  choice,  and  root  out  of  the  human  heart 
those  mighty  impulses  and  motives  which  God  has  implanted  for 
the  welfare,  preservation  and  perpetuation  of  the  human  family, 
is  a  defiance  of  the  divine  will,  a  rebellion  against  the  order 
which  God  has  ordained,  of  which  no  devout  or  reverent  person 
should  be  guilty. 

Against  this  dire  perversion  of  all  the  sweetest  instincts  of  the 
human  soul,  so  abhorrent  to  conscience  and  to  God,  the  one  safe- 
guard is  in  subjection  to  the  divine  command,  and  in  the  culture  of 
those  natural  affections  which  are  the  common  possession  of  all  the 
higher  orders  of  the  animate  creation,  which  are  the  heritage  of  the 
whole  human  family,  which  have  their  origin  and  source  in  the 
bosom  of  the  heavenly  Father  "  of  whom  the  whole  family  in  heaven 
and  earth  is  named,"  and  the  absence  of  which  indicates  that  human 
beings  who  lack  them  are  grovelling  somewhere  between  the 
realms  of  brutishness  and  devilishness,  with  a  tendency  downward  to 
the  pit  of  darkness  and  despair. 

"  This  know  also,  that  in  the  last  days  perilous  times  shall  come 
for  men  shall  be  .  .  .  without  natural  affection."   2  Tim.  iii.  1, 3. 


PEACTICAL  SUGGESTIONS. 


The  Psalmist  prayed,  "  Open  thou  mine  eyes,  that  I  may  behold 
wondrous  things  out  of  thy  law;"  and  among  these  "wondrous 
tilings'  are  the  wise  provisions  by  which  the  great  Lawgiver  of 
Israel  indirectly  regulated  and  restrained  the  exercise  of  the 
mightiest  instincts  which  God  has  implanted  in  the  human  consti- 
tution, and  against  the  exercise  of  which  direct  legislation  and 
prohibition  would  have  proved  useless  and  impracticable.  A  few 
paragraphs  from  a  little  book  entitled  "  The  Wonderful  Law,"  may 
afford  the  thoughtful  matter  for  consideration,  and  perhaps  lead 
the  reader  to  that  work  for  fuller  details  upon  this  and  other  points. 

"The  law  of  Moses  guarded  the  purity  of  womanhood  with  its 
sternest  sanctions.  Outrages  upon  women  were  punished  with 
death.  The  seducer  of  the  Jewish  maiden  must  marry  her,  if  her 
parents  would  permit  the  marriage,  and  if  not,  must  pay  heavily 
for  his  misdeed ;  and  while  wives  taken  under  other  circumstances 
might  be  divorced,  such  a  marriage  was  indissoluble.  Adultery 
was  punished  by  the  death  of  both  the  guilty  parties.  Prostitution 
was  a  capital  crime,  and  no  illegitimate  child  could  enter  the  con 
gregation  of  the  Lord,  or  be  incorporated  in  the  commonwealth  of 
Israel  and  possess  the  rights  of  a  free  citizen/' 

One  peculiar  provision  of  the  Mosaic  Law  went  perhaps  as  far 
as  was  practicable  in  the  regulation  of  the  social  relations  of  the 
children  of  Israel.  A  study  of  the  fifteenth  chapter  of  Leviticus 
will  furnish  important  suggestions  which  are  as  valuable  now  as 
then.  The  word  "  uncleanness  "  in  the  Jewish  Law,  did  not  refer 
exclusively  to  material  filth, — as  the  slightest  touch  of  a  dead  body 
rendered  the  whole  person  "  unclean  " — but  the  word  was  restrictive 
and  prohibitive.  Under  this  law  sensual  indulgence  made  a  man  a 
social  outcast  until  he  was  properly  "  purified."  And  by  such  pro- 
visions the  purport  of  which  was  probably  not  fully  apparent  to  those 

(88) 


THE     CROWNING     SIN    OF    THE    AGE.  89 

who  obeyed  them — did  the  law  of  Moses  secure  ends  which  all 
other  human  legislation  has  failed  to  effect ;  preserving  the  purity 
of  the  family,  the  health  of  the  parents,  and  the  vigor  of  their  off- 
spring ;  maintaining  the  balance  of  the  sexes,  preventing  over- 
population, and  quietly  and  indirectly  effecting  results  which  the 
wisest  human  lawgivers  have  been  powerless  to  accomplish;  and 
this  in  accordance  with  physiological  laws  of  which  the  world  has 
been  in  ignorance  for  ages,  and  which  have  only  been  discovered 
in  our  own  generation* 

"In  addition  to  this,  the  Mosaic  law  cast  about  the  weaker  sex 
the  most  absolute  protection  imaginable.  Nothing  was  left  to 
chance,  to  will,  to  caprice,  or  passion.  The  stern  law  of  God  stood 
sentinel  over  the  health,  purity  and  welfare  of  the  wife,  and  pre- 
served the  sanctity  of  the  home.  Probably  for  from  one-half  to 
two-thirds  of  her  married  life,  the  Israelitish  wife  was  tah-meh, 
'unclean*  or  forbidden.  That  word  hedged  her  about  on  every 
hand.  The  ^lightest  contact  with  her  person,  her  clothing,  her 
bed,  or  her  couch,  rendered  any  man  guilty  of  it  '  unclean/  and 
sent  him  into  seclusion  from  one  to  seven  days,  compelling  him  to 
bathe  his  entire  person  before  he  could  walk  forth  as  a  man  among 
men,  and  participate  in  the  worship,  the  festivities,  and  the  privi- 
leges pertaining  to  Jewish  citizenship.  Exod.  xix.  10-15;  1  Saml. 
xxi.  4,  5  ;  Joel  ii.  16  ;  1  Cor.  vii.  5. 

"This  prohibition  was  so  timed  that  its  inevitable  tendency  was  to 
lessen  the  number  of  births  which  would  otherwise  occur,  and  at  the 
same  time,  according  to  the  laws  of  the  human  constitution  as 
discovered  by  modern  research,  secure  '  the  survival  of  the  fittest,' 
the  preservation  of  the   most  vigorous  germs  of  human  existence, 


*Renouard,  in  his  History  of  Medicine,  translated  by  Dr.  Comegys, 
makes  these  statements:  "The  writings  of  Moses  constitute  a  precious 
monument  in  the  history  of  medicine,  for  they  embrace  hygienic  rules  of 
the  highest  sagacity.  ...  In  reading,  for  instance,  those  precepts  designed 
to  regulate  the  relation  of  a  man  to  nis  wife,  one  cannot  repress  a  sentiment 
of  admiration  for  the  wisdom  and  foresight  which  made  such  salutary 
regulations  a  religious  duty.  .  .  .  Apart  from  the  religious  ceremonies 
connected  with  them,  might  it  rot  be  said  that  they  are  extracts  from  a 
modern  work  on  hygienics?"  But  what  more  than  this  excites  the  aston- 
ishment of  physicians,  is  the  tableau  that  Moses  has  made  of  the  "White 
Leprosy,  and  the  regulations  he  established  to  prevent  its  propagation." 
The  Bible  in  the  Nineteenth  Century,  p.  42. 


90  THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE. 

thus   tending  to   produce   a   people  physically  superior  to   other 

nations  who  lived  without  such  wholesome  restraints. 

"  Thus  the  regulation  of  the  social  life  ©f  the  Hebrew  was  not 
left  to  chance,  passion,  or  blind  and  unreasoning  impulse  ;  but  the 
lawlessness  of  human  nature  was  met,  not  by  the  remonstrances  of 
weakness  and  helplessness,  but  by  the  stern  law  of  God,  which  like 
a  naming  sword  turned  every  way  to  protect  the  defenseless,  and 
guard  the  purity  and  integrity  of  the  home.  And  as  each  indul- 
gence of  the  natural  passions  was  followed  by  a  period  of  seclusion, 
the  inconvenience  of  which  is  manifest,  the  natural  tendency  of 
the  law  was  to  cultivate  virtue,  foster  self-control,  school  the  Jew- 
ish nation  in  continence  and  chastity,  and  insure  the  perpetuation 
of  a  healthful  and  virtuous  population." 

A  leading  religious  journal,  The  Christian  Advocate,  speaking  of 
single  beds  has  said,  "  If  these  were  more  numerous  than  they  are,  a 
great  many  people  would  be  better  off."  What  a  belated  sanitary 
science  now  recommends,  the  law  of  Moses  positively  required  three 
thousand  years  ago,  and  thus  removed  many  temptations  to  sensual 
indulgence. 

"  Such  a  law,  imposed  on  Christendom  to-day,  would  be  a  price- 
less boon  to  thousands  who  are  walking  in  weariness  and  wretched- 
ness toward  open  graves.  It  would  stay  the  ravages  of  dire  and 
deadly  diseases,  would  foster  affection,  hinder  quarrels,  prevent  dis- 
gust and  divorce,  and  produce  a  chaste,  vigorous,  self-centred  race, 
superior  in  moral  character  and  stamina  to  anything  which  modern 
usage  and  custom  is  likely  to  develop;  preventing  those  weaknesses 
and  ailments  which  send  men  to  unscrupulous  quacks  as  sheep  to  the 
slaughter ;  guiding  the  erring  for  counsel  to  the  priest,  whose  lips 
were  to  keep  knowledge ;  and  laying  a  foundation  for  a  physical  vigor 
like  that  of  the  Jewish  race,  which  more  than  thirty  centuries  has 
failed  to  deteriorate  or  destroy.  The  continence  and  the  ablutions 
now  prescribed  by  physicians,  were  then  made  obligatory  by  divine 
law,  which  went  to  the  fountain  head,  demanding  that  men  should  be 
holy  in  body  and  in  spirit,  excluding  the  transgressor  and  the 
sensualist  from  the  house  and  worship  of  God  under  pain  of  death, 
and  making  possible  a  pure,  domestic  life  in  the  midst  of  the  pre- 
vailing apostacy  and  corruption.  These  few  Mosaic  laws  were 
worth  more  to  the  Jewish  nation  than  tons  of  quack  medicines,  and 


THE     CROWNING    SIN    OF    THE    AGE.  91 

cart-loads  of  books  written  by  physicians  to  instruct  people  in  their 
duties  in  these  respects.  And  though  infidels  may  scoff  at  them, 
their  wives  would  doubtless  hail  them  as  a  priceless  boon,  if  they 
could  only  understand  their  import.  And  we  should  see  fewer 
faded  women  and  fewer  jaded  men,  if  the  people  of  this  age  were 
instructed  to  conform  their  lives  to  the  healthful  interdictions  and 
requirement  of  the  Mosaic  law."  * 

At  every  fresh  launching  of  humanity  on  its  course,  God  gives  a 
considerable  degree  of  strength  and  vigor,  and  most  children,  if 
properly  reared  and  bred,  will  develop  a  fair  amount  of  vital  energy. 
And  if  girls  are  properly  reared,  well  developed,  untrammeled,  and 
unspoiled  by  godless  fashions,  and  are  well  married  to  kind  and 
faithful  Christian  men,  who  love  their  wives  as  their  own  bodies, 
are  as  careful  of  their  physical  needs  and  conditions  as  they  would 
be  of  t'heir  horses  and  cattle  under  similar  circumstances ;  they 
meanwhile  living  simply,  dressing  plainly  and  comfortably,  allowing 
their  raiment  to  be  flexible  and  expansive  ever  every  flexible  por- 
tion of  the  body; — to  them  under  proper  conditions,  moth- 
hood  may  be  a  joy  and  benediction.  And  long  after  the  childless 
butterflies  of  fashion  have  faded,  died,  and  been  forgotten,  such 
mothers  may  live  in  a  green  old  age,  to  bless  the  world  by  their 
presence,  to  guide  their  families  in  right  paths,  and  to  direct  their 
children  with  wise  and  timely  counsels  in  the  way  of  life.  God 
has  poured  wonderful  energies  into  the  human  form,  and  lias  made 
such  special  provisions  for  the  reproduction  and  perpetuation  of  the 
race,  that  if  people  will  simply  walk  in  his  commandments  and  ordin- 
ances blameless,  most  of  the  difficulties  which  men  and  women  ap- 
prehend will  be  found  to  exist  only  in  their  imaginations,  and  all  at- 
tempts to  violate  and  interfere  with  the  order  established  by  divine 
providence,  will  be  recognized  as  most  certain  to  cause  evil  greater 
than  those  which  it  is  desired  to  remedy. 


*See  TheWonderful  Law,  by  II.  L.  Hastings.  Anti-Ixfidiil  Library, 
No.  18.,  paper  20  cts.  cloth  35  cts.  To  be  obtained  of  the  publishers  of  this 
work. 


THE     CROWNING     SIN    OF     THE    AGE. 
Commendatory  Letters. 


From  Cardinal  Gibbons. 

Cardinal's  Eesidence,    Baltimore,  June  4,  1892. 
Bev.,  and  Dear  Sir  : 

I  beg  leave  to  thank  you  for  the  copy  of  the  little  work,  "  The 
Crowning  Sin  of  the  Age/'  which  you  were  pleased  to  send  me. 
The  Catholic  Church  has  inflexibly  set  her  face  against  this  crime 
against  the  family  and  society,  but  her  voice  has  not  been  heeded 
where  yours  is  heard. 

I  thank  you  for  your  zeal  and  courage  in  tearing  off  the  mask 
and  in  exhibiting  this  loathsome  monster  in  all  its  deformity.  May 
your  efforts  in  the  cause  of  female  honor  and  purity  be  crowned 
with  success.     Your  mission  is  worthy  of  all  praise. 

Fraternally  yours  in  Christ,         j.  card,  gibboxs. 


From  Rev.  A.  J.  Gordon,  D.  D.,  Clarendon  St.  Baptist  Church. 

Boston,  June  7th,  1892. 
My  Dear  Sir: 

I  have  examined  your  book :  "  The  Crowning  Sin  of  the  Age." 
I  regard  its  teachings  as  sound,  its  warnings  as  timely,  and  its  les- 
sons as  most  solemn  and  worthy  of  consideration.  May  its  voice 
be  heard  by  this  wicked  and  adulterous  generation. 

Yours  sincerelv,  a.  j.  Gordon. 


From  Rev.  John  H.  Vincent  D.  D.,  LL.D.,  Bishop  of  the 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and  Chancellor  of  Chautauqua. 
Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  June  10,  1892. 
My  Dear  Sir  and  Brother : 

I  regard  your  little  book  as  a  wise,  strong,  brave  exposition  and 
denunciation  of  what  is,  I  fear,  a  growing  evil,  and  I  trust  that  the 
book  may  have  the  widest  possible  circulation. 

Faithfully  yours,      johx  h.  vixcent. 


From     Joseph  Cook,  D.  D. 

Cliff  Seat,  Ticonderoga,  X.  Y.,  June  20,  1892. 
Dear  Sir : 

I  thank  you  for  the  copy  of  your  discourse  on  "  The  Crowning 
Sin  of  the  Age."  It  is  timely,  trenchant,  and  courageous.  The 
authorities  you  quote  appear  to  be  well  sifted.  Concerning  the 
huge  social  iniquity  that  you  unmask,  my  friends  in  the  medical 
profession  assure  me,  that  discussions  like  yours  are  immensely 
needed,  even  among  church  members  in  our  own  time. 

Yours  very  respectfully,     joseph  cook. 


TEE     CROWNING    SIN    OF     THE    AGE.  93 

Commendatory  Letters. 


From  Rev.  Theodore  L.  Cuyler,  D.  D.,  LL.D.,  Brooklyn,  X.  Y. 

Brooklyn,  June  11,  1892. 
Dear  Brother  Sinclair  : 

Hearty  thanks  for  your  plain,  pungent,  and  powerful  sermon.  It  is  not 
easy  to  handle  pitch  without  being  defiled,  but  you  have  successfully 
handled  a  very  unclean  topic  with  clean  hands  and  a  clear  conscience.  The 
discourse  ought  to  be  circulated  by  the  tons  of  thousands,  and  read  too,  with 
twinges  of  shame  and  remorse  by  thousands  of  Christian  (?)  husbands  and 
wives  who  are  guilty  of  this  sin  against  home,  and  country,  and  God.  In 
the  days  of  my'childhood  large  families  among  our  American  population  was 
the  rule,  now  it  is  the  exception.  The  "Puritan"  blood  is  becoming  almost 
extinct  in  some  townships  of  New  England,  and  the  best  native  stock  is  fast 
running  out  in  all  parts  of  our  land.  No  one  danger  that  threatens  our 
future  as  a  Christian  Republic  is  so  portentous  as  this  one  at  which  you 
have  discharged   so  tremendous  a  "  broadside  ." 

God  bless  you  for  your  courageous  fidelity  to  truth  and  righteousness. 

Yours  in  Christ  Jesus, 

THEODOKE   L.  CUYLEPw. 


From  Rev.  Charles  F.  Deems,  D.  D.,  LL.D.,  Church  of  the  Strangers, 
New  York,  Pres.  American  Institute  Christian  Philosophy. 

Church  of  the  Strangers,  N.  Y.,  June  8,  '92. 
Rev.  and  Dear   Sir: 

I  have  read  "  The  Crowning  Sin  of  the  Age."  It  is  a  prodigious  blast. 
It  ought  to  arouse  the  conscience  of  the  people.  It  is  appalling  to  think  that 
while  Mrs.  Stowe  was  writing  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  there  were  more 
white  children  murdered  in  New  England,  than  colored  people  of  every  age, 
in  all  the  South. 

I  shall  take  occasion  to  commend  your  pamphlet  in  the  pages  of  "  Chris- 
tian Thought,"  and  trust  it  will  have  a  wide  circulation,  and  do  a  great 
amount  of  good. 

very  respectfully  and  fraternally  yours, 

CHARLES  F.  DEEMS. 


From  James  McCosh,  D.  D.,  LL.D.,  Litt.  D.,  Ex-President  Princeton 
University. 

Princeton,  N.  J.,  June  6,  1892. 
To  Rev.  Brevard  D.  Sinclair. 
My  Dear  Sir  : 

I  am  pleased  to  find  that  you  are  showing  great  courage  in  opposing  in  a 
manly  manner,  one  of  the  great  evils  of  our  day,  which  has  its  foundation 
deep  in  New  England,  and  is  spreading  all  over  the  country.  I  hope  you 
will  persevere  in  your  opposition  till  you  raise  a  public  sentiment  which  will 
sweep  away  much  of  the  evil  and  secure  the  gratitude  of  all  right  thinking 
people.  Yours  ever, 

JAMES   MCCOSH. 


94  THE     CROWNING     SIN    OF     THE    AGE. 

Commendatory  Letters. 


From  Miss  Frances  E.  Willard,  President  of  the  National  W.  C.  T.  U., 
Editor  in  Chief  of  the  Uotom  Signal,  Chicago,  111. 

Chicago,  111.,  June  11,  1892. 
Rev.  Brevard  D.  Sinclair, 
Pastor  of  the  Old  South  Presbyterian  Church, 

Newburyport,  Mass. 
Dear  Brother: 

With  the  intention  of  your  book  entitled  "The  Crowning  Sin  of  the  Age," 
I  have  entire  sympathy.  To  my  mind  there  is  not  a  crime  more  heinous 
than  the  defeat  of  God's  intention  in  marriage,  whether  it  be  done  through 
the  baseness  of  man  or  the  ignorance,  the  sin,  or  the  subserviency  of  woman. 
Most  of  the  sermons  I  have  heard  or  read  on  the  subject,  proceed  on  the 
assumption  that  the  woman  is  the  criminal, but  you  make  that  plain  which  is 
God's  truth  that  the  men  are  equally  to  blame.  Many  a  woman  has  told  me 
that  her  husband  said  he  would  not  support  a  large  family,  and  upbraided 
her  for  bringing  him  so  many  little  ones,  his  utterances  on  the  subject  being 
of  such  a  nature  that  a  person  not  informed  would  suppose  he  had  no  more 
to  do  with  the  catastrophe,  as  he  seemed  to  consider  it,  than  if  there  were  no 
such  thing  as  mutuality  in  parentage. 

The  pulpit  and  press  cannot  speak  too  strongly  against  the  evils  that 
you  and  I,  alike,  abominate  and  deplore.  No  sane  person  can  think  other- 
wise than  this.  *  $  *  ^  When  women  stand  as  I  expect  to  see  them 
stand,  invested  with  all  the  powers  to  which  I  have  referred,  they  will  not 
marry  for  a  home,  they  will  not  marry  to  secure  themselves  from  the  sense- 
less prejudice  of  an  ignorant  and  old-time  conservatism,  but  they  will  marry 
from  pure  and  sincere  affection.  When  they  do  this  they  will  desire  children, 
and  we  shall  not  see  the  hideous  spectacle  of  a  woman  who  married  for  a 
home,  and  who,  having  no  real  tie  of  heart  between  herself  and  husband, 
really  detests  his  presence,  and  all  that  it  involves. 

Whether  we  admit  it  or  not,  this  is  the  case  very  often  in  these  days,  and 
has  been  in  all  the  past.  The  woman  question  in  the  aspects  to  which  I 
have  referred,  means  true  unions,  constant  affection,  children  lovingly 
desired  and  nobly  born. 

Nothing  else,  in  my  solemn  opinion  will  ever  bring  about  the  results 
in  the  interests  of  which  you  have  made  your  manly,  dignified  and  earnest 
discourse.    Believe  me, 

Yours  with  high  regard, 

FRANCES  E.    WILLARD. 


From  Very  Rev.  P.  F.  Dissez,  S.  S.,  D.  D.,  Prof,  of  Moral  Theology, 
St.  Mary's  (Roman  Catholic)  Seminary,  Baltimore,  Md. 

St.  Mary's  Seminary,  Baltimore,  June  15,  1892. 
Rev.  Dear  Sir: 

I  congratulate  you  for  denouncing  so  strongly  "The  Crowning  Sin  of  the 
Age,"  the  Perversion  of  Marriage;  a  sin  the  more  dangerous  and  insidious 
as  it  hides  itself  behind  the  veil  of  delicacy  and  decency,  which  prevents 
preachers  from  branding  it,  whilst  it  does  not  deter  its  adepts  from  privately 
commending  it  even  to  children. 

"  Oh,  the  offence  is  rank.  It  smells  to  heaven."  Heaven  shall  punish  it, 
aad  reward  you  for  your  generous  Christian  protest. 

Respectfully  yours  in  Christ, 

P.  F.  DISSEZ,  S.  S. 


